[7] Аnalysis of corneal aberration

Diffractive Optics, Opto-IT 810

of the human eye

P.A. Khorin 1, S.N. Khonina 1, 2, A.V. Karsakov 1, S.L. Branchevsky 3
1
Samara National Research University, Samara, Russia,
2
Image Processing Systems Institute оf RAS,– Branch of the FSRC “Crystallography and
Photonics” RAS, Samara, Russia,
3
Branchevsky Eye Clinic, Samara, Russia
Abstract
In this work, we analyze the human eye corneal aberrations based on the data obtained in the
Branchevsky Eye Clinic. The analysis is performed on the basis of representation of aberra-
tions as a superposition of Zernike functions. As the result of the analysis, we selected the Zerni-
ke basis functions which are the most characteristic for some pathologies of the eye.
Keywords: CORNEAL ABERRATION, ZERNIKE FUNCTION, POINT SPREAD FUNCTION, MYOPIA OF THE HUMAN EYE.
Citation: KHORIN PA, KHONINA SN, KARSAKOV AV, BRANCHEVSKY SL. ANALYSIS OF CORNEAL ABERRATIONS OF THE HUMAN EYE.
COMPUTER OPTICS 2016; 40(6): 810-817.
DOI: 10.18287/0134-2452-2016-40-6-810-817.

Introduction 1. Description of aberrometers

The human eye may be described as a lens system con- The WaveLight Oculyzer II and HD Analyzer aberrome-
sisting of three principal components: cornea, pupil ters provided by the Branchevsky Eye Clinic were used to
and crystalline lens [1]. All optical characteristics of obtain aberrations data for the human eye optical system.
the normal human eye are determined by means of The WaveLight Oculyzer II is a diagnostic device de-
combination of corneal aberrations and intraocular veloped for characteristics determination and oph-
optics. thalmic fundus examination. It is designed for visual-
The researches [2 – 4] show that the total amount ization of the anterior surface which includes: cornea,
of wave aberrations in the whole eye is always small- pupil, ocular anterior chamber and the crystalline lens
er than aberrations of the anterior corneal surface or (Fig. 1). This device measures a corneal shape and it
intraocular optics. This effect is due to the process of is specially designed for ophtalmologists. The key ad-
compensation between the cornea and the crystalline vantage of this research paper is that the WaveLight
lens [5]. There are some sound arguments for compen- Oculyzer II performs the analysis of the anterior and
sating aberrations between the cornea and intraocular posterior corneal surfaces and enables us to achieve
optics in the case of astigmatism, coma, and spherical the Zernike expansion of aberration functions (Fig. 2).
aberration [6]. The overall result of the compensation
process is the reduction of the value of these aberra-
tions in the retina plane with possible improvement of
the image optical quality in foveola. The value of ab-
errations in the cornea and crystalline lens for young
people is basically higher than that one in the whole
eye. This fact substantiates the earlier assumption that
the crystalline lens plays important role in compensa-
tion of corneal aberrations, which results in improve-
ment of the image quality on the retina.
In this paper, we pay special attention particularly to the
anterior and posterior corneal surfaces, as the aberra-
tions of these surfaces are very important in imaging of
the human eye optical system. Besides, the correction of
these particular surfaces can be easily performed in sur- Fig. 1. Summary report on the WaveLight Oculyzer II perfor-
gical procedures [7 – 9]. mance
KHORIN PA et al… COMPUTER OPTICS 2016; 40(6): 810-817.
 Diffractive Optics, Opto-IT 811
The wavefront expansion coefficients by the Zernike
orthogonal functions [10] allow us to determine the mated by means of L1. After the beam is reflected
standard mean squared deflection error of the ideal and passed through the beam splitter BS, it goes
wavefront. The wavefront aberration is determined through the achromatic lenses L2 and L3 and cor-
as a deviation of this wavefront from a reference rector FC (with two neighboring mirrors) with a
surface (ideal wave). An initial surface is usually de- varying focus [12].
fined as the wavefront curvature surface which de-
rives from a Gaussian image point (where the light
would be focused if the eye was ideal).
The image quality evaluation consists in watching
test objects, measuring photometric characteristics,
and determining the point spread function (PSF) and
the line spread function. In practice, these particular
characteristics demonstrate quantitatively the image
quality of the optical system. The quality evaluation
methods for this kind of images have one great advan-
tage – they consider every single causes involved in
real optical imaging.

Fig. 3. Typical diagram of the HD Analyzer

Ocular spherical refraction is corrected by changing opti-

cal distances between L2 and L3.
The HD Analyzer images contain information on
the quality of the ocular optical system, including
the high order aberrations, however, in this case
only PSF is visualized (Fig. 4), whereas the contri-
Fig. 2. A Zernike pyramid with the weighing factors for the bution of separate aberrations is not detailed. The
anterior corneal surface high order aberrations are important for refractive
surgery.
The point spread function found experimentally char-
acterizes the system quality. It allows us to consid-
er all of the features of the system-generated wave
surface, including a microrelief pattern of optical
surfaces, such as the posterior and anterior corneal
surfaces [11].
The data collected by the HD Analyzer recording
device are also used in this paper. It is a tool based
on the light double pass technique, which provides
objective clinical assessment of the quality of the
eye optics.
A light source is projected on the retina. For this
purpose, the light goes twice through the ocular Fig. 4. Summary report on the HD Analyzer performance
medium: before and after retina reflection. The HD
Analyzer analyzes the size and shape of the reflected
light spot. 2. Typical aberrations
The optical diagram of the device is shown in Fig. Each Zernike basis function is related to a special
3. The light source is a laser diode 780 nm in type of optical errors or wavefront deviations (Ta-
wavelength. The light beam is filtered and colli- ble 1). The deviations may be described as a combi-

KHORIN PA et al… COMPUTER OPTICS 2016; 40(6): 810-817.

 Diffractive Optics, Opto-IT 812
nation of basic aberrations, which are better known
for ophthalmology professionals. therefore, in each individual case it must be specially
stated.
Table1. Relationship of the Zernike functions and types The wavefront aberrations detected in optical systems
of aberrations are usually described in terms of the Zernike basis
functions as follows [10]:
Trigonometric Types of ab-
N n m
representation errations
W ( r ,=
ϕ ) exp iψ ( r , ϕ )  , (2)
N n
1 0 0 1 Constant
ψ ( r, ϕ) Z nm ( r , ϕ ).
= ∑∑c
n= 0 m= −n
nm (3)

2 1 –1 2rsin(q) Tilt For easy visual representation, Figure  5 shows a

“Zernike pyramid” consisting of several first Zernike
3 1 1 2rcos(q) Tilt functions. The radial numbers vary vertically from
n = 0 to 4, whereas the azimuth numbers vary horizon-
tally from m = –n to m = n.
4 2 –2 Astigmatism
6r 2 sin (2q)

5 2 0 Defocus
3 (2r 2 − 1)

6 2 2 Astigmatism
6r 2 cos (2q)
Zero curva-
7 3 –3 3 ture Coma
2 2r sin (3q)
(Trefoil)

8 3 –1 Pure coma
2 2(3r 3 − 2r )sin (q)

9 3 1 Pure coma
2 2 (3r 3 − 2r )cos (q)
Zero curva-
10 3 3 3 ture Coma
2 2r cos (3q)
(Trefoil)

11 4 –4 Quadrofoil
10r 4 sin (4q)

2th order
12 4 –2
10 (4r 4 − 3r 2 )sin (2q) Astigmatism

13 4 0 Spherical
5 (6r 4 − 6r 2 + 1) Fig. 5. Patterns of several Zernike functions
2 order
th
14 4 2
10 (4r 4 − 3r 2 )cos (2q) Astigmatism To construct PSF patterns in the presence of typical aber-
rations, we used the simplest optical system of the Fouri-
15 4 4
10r 4 cos (4q)
Quadrofoil er correlator in Zemax software[13].
Two equal lenses made of BK8 glass are used in the
optical diagram given in Fig. 6.
The Zernike functions are considered in this paper as
follows:
n +1 m cos ( mϕ ) 
Z nm ( r , ϕ ) = Rn ( r )   , (1)
 sin ( mϕ ) 
2
πr0
where Rnm (r ) are the Zernike radial polynomials.
The numbering sequence and normalization of the
Zernike functions may be performed in different ways; Fig. 6. Optical diagram of the Fourier correlator

KHORIN PA et al… COMPUTER OPTICS 2016; 40(6): 810-817.

 Diffractive Optics, Opto-IT 813
The system aperture diaphragm 3 mm in radius is lo-
cated in the center of the diagram. In simulation, the The coherent PSF (Fig. 8) obtained by means of
wavelength was 780 nm. When setting the radius of the Fourier transform is close to aberration curves
normalization by Zernike polynomials, we used not (Fig. 7) obtained by modeling in Zemax.
the lens radius, but the exit pupil radius calculated in
Zemax, which was 8.37 mm.
The third-order coma (Fig. 7) was added to the first
surface of the second lens that corresponds to the Zerni-
ke function (3,1) (the coefficient was selected as being
equal to 1).

a)

b)

Fig. 8. Patterns of PSFs corresponding to typical aberrations

Note that in addition to the numbering and normal-

ization, the Zernike functions may differ in the angu-
lar dependence. In particular, for the analysis of the
wavefront we considered both exponential and trigo-
c) nometric angular dependence using multichannel dif-
fractive optical elements [14 – 17]. Moreover, in the
first case, there is the rotation invariance of the Zerni-
ke basis [18]. In the second case, when rotating the
picture (Fig. 9), the coefficients for the Zernike basis
functions will be changed.

d)
Fig. 7. PSF in the absence of aberration (а), coma (b)
and relevant test images (c, d)

We will make use of the following algorithm to sim- Fig. 9. Rotating PSF of the Zernike function n = 3, m = 1,
ulate a similar system. We will construct a wavefront φ0 = {0, π/6, π/4, π/3, π/2, π, 3π/2, 2π}
as a superposition of Zernike polynomials using for-
mulas (1) – (3). Then we will calculate PSF as the The possibility of calculating the field angle rotation
Fourier transform of the pupil function (2) in the by φ0 is provided by the following superposition:
coherent case. For easy visual representation, Fig-
= ψ ( r , ϕ ) Rnm ( r )  a sin ( mϕ ) + b cos ( mϕ )  , (4)
ure 8 shows a “PSF pyramid” corresponding to the
Zernike pyramid. where a = sin(|m|ϕ0), b = cos(|m|ϕ0), φ0∈[0; 2π].

KHORIN PA et al… COMPUTER OPTICS 2016; 40(6): 810-817.

 Diffractive Optics, Opto-IT 814
3. Basic aberrations
of the ocular optical system Various aberrations were subsequently added to the
In our research, we used the data obtained in the corneal surface. Figure 11 represents the optical system
Branchevsky Eye Clinic in the fall of 2016 both for operating with coma added to the anterior corneal sur-
conventionally healthy people (without evident pa- face corresponding to the Zernike function (3, 1) with
thologies in the pupil and crystalline lens) and for pa- the factor of 1.
tients with certain pathologies, particularly, with low When setting the radius of normalization by the
and moderate myopia. Zernike polynomials, we used not the lens radius,
The cornea (including the tear film) is a dominant but the exit pupil radius calculated in Zemax that
structure of the optical power of the human eye was 100 mm.
(on average, about 70%). It is accordingly the main
source of aberrations in the human eye. The anterior
corneal surface has an elongated profile; so its center
is sharper than its periphery. This form helps us to
decrease the value of spherical aberrations through-
out the whole eye. However, corneal shapes differ
significantly for different people, and this leads to
astigmatism and high-order asymmetric aberrations
(e.g., coma).
A corneal reference model can be sphere- or ellip- a) b)
soid-shaped with average eccentricity equaled to the
measured one or ellipsoid-shaped with eccentricity of
0.75. The reference model is always axially symmet-
ric, and its shape influences only the coefficients of the
axially symmetric Zernike functions (1) with numbers
(n, 0).
The central radius of the reference model is always
taken up as the central average measurement radi-
us. In the absence of the reference model, the largest
contribution to the shape of the cornea is made by c) d)
a component corresponding to the Zernike function Fig. 11. PSF in the absence of aberration (а), in the presence
(2, 0) (a paraboloid), since this component bears the of coma (b) and relevant test images (c, d)
greatest similarity to the corneal shape.
Figure 10 shows the optical diagram that en- The simplest statistical analysis was performed
ables us to implement the simplest eye model in within the framework of the present research
Zemax [18]. The wavelength in simulation was based on sampling 150 measurements. The cor-
780 nm (the same wavelength is used by the HD neal surfaces (anterior and posterior surfaces)
Analyzer). were independently examined for various patient
volunteers (with healthy crystalline lenses). The
patients were grouped according to their age (20-
29 and 30-39 years) and diagnoses (low and mod-
erate myopia).
The WaveLight Oculyzer II aberrometer en-
ables us to obtain separately the Zernike coef-
ficients for the anterior and posterior corneal
surfaces. The average values thereof are giv-
en in Figures 12–15. For visual clarity of the
Zernike coefficients, we excluded from consid-
eration (set to zero) the coefficients, corre-
Fig. 10. Layout diagram of basic refracting surfaces of sponding to the functions with numbers (n, 0),
the human eye: 1 – the anterior corneal surface, 2 – the n = 0, 2, 4. Values of the weighting coefficients
posterior corneal surface, 3 – the anterior surface of the of these functions are substantially higher than
crystalline lens, 4 – the posterior surface of the crystalline all the others, but they contain no information
lens, 5 – the retina on any deviations.

KHORIN PA et al… COMPUTER OPTICS 2016; 40(6): 810-817.

 Diffractive Optics, Opto-IT 815

Figure 16 shows distributions corresponding to the

average aberrations of the anterior corneal sur-
face at a diagnosis of low myopia (SE from 1 to 5
diopters) and also an appropriate PSF. The same
distributions for the posterior corneal surface are
shown in Fig. 17. To assess the influence of corneal
aberrations as a whole, the wavefront aberrations
were added up; the corresponding result is shown
in Fig. 18.

Fig. 12. Values of the weighting cofficients of the Zernike poly-

nomials for the anterior corneal surface in healthy people

a) b)
Fig. 16. The average aberrations of the angterior corneal sur-
face for diagnosis of low myopia: the wavefront (а) and PSF (b)

Fig. 13. Values of the weighting cofficients of the Zernike poly-

nomials for the posterior corneal surface in healthy people

a) b)

Fig. 17. The average aberrations of the posterior corneal sur-

face for diagnosis of low myopia: the wavefront (а)and PSF(b)

Fig. 14. Values of the weighting cofficients of the Zernike polyno-

mials for the anterior corneal surface in people with low myopia

a) b)
Fig. 18. The summarized average aberrations (of the anterior
and posterior corneal surfaces) for diagnosis of low myopia:
the wavefront (а) and PSF (b)

Fig. 15. Values of the weighting cofficients of the Zernike The result for diagnosis of moderate myopia was
polynomials for the posterior corneal surface in people with low obtained in a similar way (SE from 5 to 10 diopters,
myopia Fig. 19).

KHORIN PA et al… COMPUTER OPTICS 2016; 40(6): 810-817.

 Diffractive Optics, Opto-IT 816

and posterior corneal surfaces, whereas astigmatism

was captured much more (especially on the posteri-
or corneal surface). The influence of the third-order
coma is now more important than ever for moderate
myopia, as detected in the sampling analysis. In ad-
dition, aberrations typical of low myopia continue
to remain too.
a) b)
Fig. 19. The summarized average aberrations (of the anterior Acknowledgements
and posterior corneal surfaces) for diagnosis of moderate This work was financially supported by the Rusian
myopia: the wavefront (а) and PSF (b) Foundation for Basic Research (grant 15-29-03823).

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