Demonstration of real-time depth-resolved Shack-Hartmann measurements

Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensors (SH-WFS) have little sensitivity in depth and hence are unsuitable for microscopy and are limited for retinal imaging. We demonstrate the first direct Shack-Hartmann measurement of wavefront originating from a multiple-layer target, in the presence of significant stray reflections that render a standard SH-WFS inoperable. A coherence-gate SH-WFS is implemented by adding time-domain low-coherence reflectometry gating to an SH-WFS configuration. The depth resolution is determined by the operational depth selection of the coherence gate, much narrower than the depth range of the SH-WFS. Five distinctive wavefronts are measured from five layers of a multiple-layer target. This paves the way toward depth-resolved wavefront sensing, which can significantly improve adaptive optics closed loops applied to microscopy and imaging of the retina. © 2012 Optical Society of America.