AdOpt: analog VLSI stochastic optimization for adaptive optics

Phase distortion in wavefront propagation is one of the key problems in optical imaging and laser optics applications. We present a hybrid VLSI and optical system for real-time adaptive phase distortion compensation. The system operates “model-free”, independent of the specifics of the distorting optical medium and the compensation control elements. Our VLSI system implements stochastic parallel perturbative gradient descent/ascent so that we achieve fast optimization of the chosen performance metric to achieve realtime compensation. We include experimental results of the hybrid VLSI-optical system demonstrating successful operation for a laser-beam focusing/defocusing task.