A universal framework for microscope sensorless adaptive optics: Generalized aberration representations

Journal article

Adaptive optics (AO) methods are widely used in microscopes to improve image quality through correction of phase aberrations. A range of wavefront-sensorless AO schemes exist, such as modal, pupil segmentation zonal, and pixelated piston-based methods. Each of these has a different physical implementation that makes direct comparisons difficult. Here, we propose a framework that fits in all sensorless AO methods and facilitates systematic comparisons among them. We introduce a general model for the aberration representation that encompasses many existing methods. Through modeling and experimental verification in a two-photon microscope, we compared sensorless AO schemes with a range of aberration representations to correct both simulated and sample induced aberrations. The results show that different representations can provide a better basis for correction in different experimental scenarios, which can inform the choice of sensorless AO schemes for a particular application.

Authors: Booth, MJ; Hu, Q; Wang, J; Antonello, J; Hailstone, M

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: American Institute of Physics
• Journal: APL Photonics
• Volume: 5
• Issue: 10
• Publication date: 2020-10-05
• Acceptance date: 2020-09-21
• DOI: 10.1063/5.0022523
• EISSN: 2378-0967
• Language: English
• Keywords: FFR