Adaptive optical apparatus, optical system, and optical wavefront compensation method

An adaptive optical apparatus, comprising:

• a first deformable mirror including a first reflecting surface to reflect light propagated through an atmosphere and a plurality of drive elements to change a shape of the first reflecting surface;
• a second deformable mirror that includes a second reflecting surface to reflect light from the first deformable mirror and a plurality of drive elements to change a shape of the reflecting surface of the second reflecting surface;
• a detector that detects light intensity of the light from the first deformable mirror and the second deformable mirror;
• means for controlling the drive elements of the first deformable mirror and the second deformable mirror;
• means for executing a first update operation of controlling the plurality of drive elements of one deformable mirror of the first deformable mirror and the second deformable mirror based on a detected value detected by the detector, so as to change the shape of the reflecting surface of the one deformable mirror;
• means for executing the first update operation at least one more time;
• and
• means for executing a second update operation of controlling the plurality of drive elements of another deformable mirror of the first deformable mirror and the second deformable mirror based on a shape change amount of the reflecting surface of the one deformable mirror after performing the first update operation the at least one more time to change the shape of the reflecting surface of the other deformable mirror.

An optical wavefront compensation method, comprising:

• detecting a first light intensity of light from a reflecting surface of a first deformable mirror;
• controlling the first deformable mirror based on the first light intensity that has been detected and changing a shape of the reflecting surface of the first deformable mirror;
• repeating the detecting the first light intensity and the controlling the first deformable mirror at least one more time;
• and
• changing a shape of a reflecting surface of a second deformable mirror based on a shape change amount of the reflecting surface of the first deformable mirror from a predetermined initial shape of the first deformable mirror.