A low-cost, 25-actuator electrostatic deformable mirror with polyimide membrane for adaptive optics microscopy

A low-cost, compact electrostatic deformable mirror is developed using widely available polymeric materials. The fabrication method offers exceptional post-fabrication mirror flatness error of < 250 nm RMS, which can be reduced below 22 nm at best-flat. A custom real-time control system is also constructed and high fidelity reconstruction of Zernike modes up to the 4^th radial order is presented. Real-time wavefront correction is also demonstrated using a spatial-carrier laser interferometer as a wavefront sensor.