In the future, femtosecond lasers may be used to fine tune your eye’s prescription. Gandara-Montano et al. have demonstrated a technique in which pulses from a femtosecond laser are used to modify the refractive index profile in a common contact lens material. The authors used this technique to create a phase profile of a diffractive lens internal to the contact lens material. Both spherical and cylindrical lenses were demonstrated, but more general phase profiles that compensate for an individual’s aberration profile are possible. Applications of this technology potentially include customized aberration-correcting contact lenses, modification of the phase profile of intraocular lenses after they have been implanted in the eye, and even possibly modification of the refractive index of the cornea to optimize vision. The researchers still have a few hurdles to overcome. They observed reduced diffraction efficiency due to long-term changes in refractive index, as well as stray light from the boundaries of stitched regions when creating the profiles over the large aperture of the contact lens; however, as this technique is refined, it offers enormous potential for improving vision.
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