Comparative analysis of deformable mirrors for ocular adaptive optics.

We have evaluated the ability of three commercially available deformable mirrors to compensate the aberrations of the eye using a model for aberrations developed by Thibos, Bradley and Hong. The mirrors evaluated were a 37 actuator membrane mirror and 19 actuator piezo mirror (OKO Technologies) and a 35 actuator bimorph mirror (AOptix Inc). For each mirror, Zernike polynomials and typical ocular aberrated wavefronts were fitted with the mirror modes measured using a Twyman-Green interferometer. The bimorph mirror showed the lowest root mean square error, although the 19 actuator piezo device showed promise if extended to more actuators. The methodology can be used to evaluate new deformable mirrors as they become available.