Characteristics of the human isoplanatic patch and implications for adaptive optics retinal imaging

Abstract

Conventional adaptive optics enables correction of high-order aberrations of the eye, but only for a single retinal point. When imaging extended regions of the retina, aberrations increase away from this point and degrade image quality. The zone over which aberrations do not change significantly is called the "isoplanatic patch." Literature concerning the human isoplanatic patch is incomplete. We determine foveal isoplanatic patch characteristics by performing Hartmann-Shack aberrometry in 1deg increments in 8 directions on 7 human eyes. Using these measurements, we establish the correction quality required to yield at least 80% of the potential patch size for a given eye. Single-point corre..