Particle swarm optimization for wavefront correction in ophthalmic applications

Abstract

Many optical systems require the correction of the cumulative wavefront error of the system for performance optimization. In ophthalmology the wavefront error of the eye corresponds to the visual defect and can be measured up to high-order aberrations today. Lower orders of the wavefront error are usually corrected with spectacles, contact lenses or refractive surgery. In this paper we apply an optimization method called particle swarm optimization to calculate the optimal correction for visual defects based on measured high-order wavefront results. It is shown that an optimized conventional correction and in particular an extended wavefront correction including higher orders yields a better result for the visual Strehl ratio, as compared to a simple conjugate correction scheme.