Confocal scanning laser ophthalmoscope with adaptive optical wavefront correction

We have developed a new prototype of a confocal scanning laser ophthalmoscope that incorporate relatively low-cost adaptive optics to correct for wavefront aberrations induced in the exit path of the eye and the optical setup components. The scanning part of the system consists of two galvanometric scanners, and the adaptive optics part contains a membrane deformable mirror in conjunction with a Hartmann-Shack wavefront sensor. The system allows to register images of the retina with infrared illumination at a 15 Hz frame rate and with a variable viewing angle in the range of 1degrees to 10degrees. We show first results obtained with the system with images of a test target in an artificial eye and with imaging of the living human retina. We compare images obtained without and with the adaptive optics part activated. In preliminary images, retinal features down to a size of similar to25 mum have been resolved with the application of adaptive optics.