Characterization of a tunable astigmatic fluidic lens with adaptive optics correction for compact phoropter application

Fluidically controlled lenses which adaptively correct prescribed refractive error without mechanically moving parts are extensively applied in the ophthalmic applications. Capable of variable-focusing properties, however, the associated aberrations due to curvature change and refractive index mismatch can inherently degrade image quality severely. Here we present the experimental study of the aberrations in tunable astigmatic lens and use of adaptive optics to compensate for the wavefront errors. Characterization of the optical properties of the individual lenses is carried out by Shack-Hartmann measurements. An adaptive optics (AO) based scheme is demonstrated for three injected fluidic volumes, resulting in a substantial reduction of the wavefront errors from −0.12, −0.25, −0.32 to 0.01, −0.01, −0.20 μm, respectively, corresponding to the optical power tenability of 0.83 to 1.84 D. Furthermore, an integrated optical phoroptor consisting of adjustable astigmatic lenses and AO correction is demonstrated such that an induced refraction error of −1 D cylinder at 180° of a model eye vision is experimentally corrected.