Multiple-object Shack–Hartmann wavefront sensor
design for a wide field of view on the retina
Lebao Yang (杨乐宝)
1,2
, Lifa Hu (胡立发)
1
, Dayu Li (李大禹)
1
, Zhaoliang Cao (曹召良)
1
,
Quanquan Mu (穆全全)
1
,JiMa(马骥)
1,3
, and Li Xuan (宣 丽)
1,
*
1
State Key Laboratory of Applied Optics, Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics and Physics,
Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun 130033, China
2
University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100039, China
3
Liquid Crystal Institute, Kent State University, Kent, OH 44242, USA
*Corresponding author: xuanli1957@sina.com
Received September 7, 2015; accepted October 27, 2015; posted online December 10, 2015
In order to detect the aberration from a wide field of view (FOV) on the retina with adaptive optics, we present a
multiple-object Shack–Hartmann wavefront sensor (MOSHWFS) design. The simulated results indicate that
the wavefront from our MOSHWFS can be reconstructed for multiple objects, and the measurement error
can be less than λ∕7 with an MOSHWFS with an FOV of 6.7°, for maximum eye aberration. The experimental
result with two objects indicates that the measurement error can be less than λ∕14, with the root mean square of
the reference wavefront as 0.798λ and 0.895λ, respectively.
OCIS codes: 080.1010, 330.7321, 330.4460.
doi: 10.3788/COL201513.120801.
Adaptive optics (AO) originating from astronomical obser-
vation techniques has been widely used in ophthalmology
to obtain retinal images with high resolution
[1–3]
. However,
the imaging field of view (FOV) on the retina is limited by
the isoplanatic angle of the human eye, which leads to a
small FOV ranging from 1.5° to 2.5° at a wavelength of
785 nm
[4]
. However, retina imaging clinic applications
require a larger FOV for a large imaging area.
Several designs were reported to obtain a large FOV
[5–7]
.
All of the reported Shack–Hartma nn wavefront sensor
(SHWFS) for large FOVs have several microlens arrays
and/or CCDs, which makes the whole system expensive,
complex, and have a large volume. To solve the problem,
we present a design of a multiple-object SHWFS
(MOSHWFS). It has a large FOV and simple structure like
a traditional SHWFS with a large dynamic range and high
precision. In addition, our method is cost effective and com-
pact, even compared with scanning laser ophthalmology
(SLO)
[8,9]
.
The presented MOSHWFS includes only one microlens
array and a CCD, which is as simple as a single-object
SHWFS. The schematic structure of the proposed
MOSHWFS is shown in Fig.
1(a). Light from five objects
on the retina with different fields goes through the optical
relay lenses and reaches the CCD. Simulating the process
with Zemax software, we get the light spots array shown in
Fig.
1(b).
The FOV of 6.7° is designed for the MOSHWFS, which is
large enough for clinic applications. The specific parame-
ters of five objects on the retina and their images are shown
in Fig.
2. As the isoplanatic angle of the human eye is varied
among objects in the range from 1.5° to 2.5°, we select the
isoplanatic angle as 1.5° to accommodate most people’s
eyes. However, the angle between the peripheral objects
and the central object is 3.1°, which is larger than the iso-
planatic angle. A simple eye model is shown in Fig.
2(b).
The spots on the CCD are shown in F ig.
2(c) and the detail
in one subaperture is shown in Fig.
2(d).
Although we have a large FOV, it is most important to
obtain a high precision and large dynamic range of the
MOSHWFS for high-resolution imaging. So, it is neces-
sary to avoid the cross talking of light spots by selecting
reasonable number of CCD pixels in one subaperture and
the magnification of the optic system.
The dynamic range (θ
max
) derived from Fig. 2(d) can be
written as
θ
max
¼
ΔS
max
f
; (1)
where f is the focal length of the microlens. For conven-
ience, we define ΔS
max
as the size of several pixels; that is,
ΔS
max
¼ M S
pixel
, M is the number of pixels, and S
pixel
is
the pixel size. In theory, increasing the size of the micro-
lens or decreasing the focal length can increase the
dynamic range.
Fig. 1. (a) Layout of the SHWFS and (b) the image spots on the
CCD in the SHWFS. L1 and L2 are used to accommodate to the
pupil of the eye and the diameter of the SHWFS. The square
indicates the subarea of the SHWFS. The five spots in every sub-
area are the images of five objects in the retina, respectively.
COL 13(12), 120801(2015) CHINESE OPTICS LETTERS December 10, 2015
1671-7694/2015/120801(5) 120801-1 © 2015 Chinese Optics Letters