Compressive wave front sensing with weak values

We demonstrate a wavefront sensor that unites weak measurement and the compressive-sensing, single-pixel camera. Using a high-resolution spatial light modulator (SLM) as a variable waveplate, we weakly couple an optical field's transverse-position and polarization degrees of freedom. By placing random, binary patterns on the SLM, polarization serves as a meter for directly measuring random projections of the wavefront's real and imaginary components. Compressive-sensing optimization techniques can then recover the wave front. We acquire high quality, 256 × 256 pixel images of the wave front from only 10;000 projections. Photon-counting detectors give sub-picowatt sensitivity.