Analysis of the optical field on the human retina from wavefront aberration data

Abstract

Wave aberrations in the human eye are usually known with respect to the ideal spherical wavefront in the exit pupil. Using Kirchhoff's diffraction theory, we have derived a diffraction integral to compute the optical field on the retina from the wave aberration data. We have proposed a numerical algorithm based on the Stamnes-Spjelkavik-Pedersen (SSP) method to solve that integral. We have shown which approximations are admissible to reduce the complexity of the diffraction integral. In addition, we have compared our results with those of the conventional procedure used to compute intensities on the retina. We have found significant differences between our results and the conventional ones.