Tomohiro SHIRAI

Photonics Research Institute, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), 1-2-1 Namiki, Tsukuba 305-8564, Japan

(Received August 20, 2004; Accepted January 10, 2005)

A modified arrangement of the adaptive optical retinal imaging system that we described previously is proposed to reduce the intensity loss in the system, so that it works properly even when the intensity of light incident on the eye is very weak. Experiments to verify the system performance were conducted using a conventional artificial eye with a specular reflector as a model retina. We observed that an image of a test target (mimicking a retina) blurred by an aberration plate (mimicking the ocular aberrations) was successfully restored in the adaptive optics fashion even when the intensity of the incident light probing the aberration of the eye became about 1.5% of that required in the previous system. Effect of a more realistic artificial eye with a scattering object as a model retina was also examined experimentally. We found that not only the ocular aberrations, but also the retinal scattering cause the wave-front deformations and that our adaptive optics system compensates for both of them simultaneously.

Key words: adaptive optics, feedback interferometry, liquid-crystal spatial light modulator, aberration correction, retinal imaging