PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a free space optical communication system whereby the optics of a transmit telescope are manipulated using adaptive optics to compensate for wave front distortion of a light beam transmitted by a transmit telescope. SOLUTION: Wave front distortion is manifested at the receive telescope as a deviation from the normal orthogonal orientation of the wave front of the transmitted light beam relative to its line of travel. This deviation may be detected, for example, by a wave front sensor, such as a Shack-Hartman sensor, which identifies the slope or beam tilt, of discrete sections of the transmitted beam. The optics of the receive telescope can then be deformed in such a way as to cancel the wave front distortion and correspondingly reduce the resulting distortion of the received signal.
METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR CORRECTION OF OPTICAL SIGNAL WAVE FRONT DISTORTION WITHIN FREE-SPACE OPTICAL COMMUNICATION SYSTEM