Theoretical modeling and evaluation of the axial resolution of the adaptive optics scanning laser ophthalmoscope

We present axial resolution calculated using a mathematical model of the adaptive optics scanning laser ophthalmoscope (AOSLO). The peak intensity and the width of the axial intensity response are computed with the residual Zernike coefficients after the aberrations are corrected using adaptive optics for eight subjects and compared with the axial resolution of a diffraction-limited eye. The AOSLO currently uses a confocal pinhole that is 80 mum, or 3.48 times the width of the Airy disk radius of the collection optics, and projects to 7.41 mum on the retina. For this pinhole, the axial resolution of a diffraction-limited system is 114 mum and the computed axial resolution varies between 120 and 146 mum for the human subjects included in this study. The results of this analysis indicate that to improve axial resolution, it is best to reduce the pinhole size. The resulting reduction in detected light may demand, however, a more sophisticated adaptive optics system. The study also shows that imaging systems with large pinholes are relatively insensitive to misalignment in the lateral positioning of the confocal pinhole. However, when small pinholes are used to maximize resolution, alignment becomes critical. (C) 2004 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers.