Large-field-of-view, modular, stabilized, adaptive-optics-based scanning laser ophthalmoscope

TLDR

The study presents an adaptive optics retinal imager designed for dynamic eye‑movement correction. The system uses a retinal tracker and stabilizer, a wide‑field line‑scan SLO, a MEMS‑based adaptive‑optics SLO, and a confocal‑aperture selection detection scheme to characterize the double‑pass point‑spread function. The device achieved excellent performance, with adaptive optics boosting small‑aperture brightness and contrast by over twofold, reducing displaced‑aperture brightness, stabilizing retinal images within 18 µm 90 % of the time, and enabling automatic cross‑correlation alignment.

Abstract

We describe the design and performance of an adaptive optics retinal imager that is optimized for use during dynamic correction for eye movements. The system incorporates a retinal tracker and stabilizer, a wide-field line scan scanning laser ophthalmoscope (SLO), and a high-resolution microelectromechanical-systems-based adaptive optics SLO. The detection system incorporates selection and positioning of confocal apertures, allowing measurement of images arising from different portions of the double pass retinal point-spread function (psf). System performance was excellent. The adaptive optics increased the brightness and contrast for small confocal apertures by more than 2× and decreased the brightness of images obtained with displaced apertures, confirming the ability of the adaptive optics system to improve the psf. The retinal image was stabilized to within 18μm 90% of the time. Stabilization was sufficient for cross-correlation techniques to automatically align the images.