Adaptive Optics and Its Applications

Dear Colleagues,

Adaptive optics (AO) is a technology used to enhance the performance of an optical system by manipulating the optical wavefront. A wavefront of interest could be corrupted by several means, such as optical elements, misalignment, presence of medium, etc. Employing an active means of manipulating a wavefront with adaptive optical elements such as a deformable mirror provides precise control of the shape of the wavefront. This precision and programmable control, unobtainable by non-adaptive elements, leads to dramatic improvements in the performance of many optical systems (e.g., resolution in imaging systems). Thus, AO is employed in a broad range of imaging and non-imaging applications to reduce aberrations, improve image quality, or shape laser beams.

AO has become a powerful branch in photonics and emerged as an inevitable tool in a wide range of key applications, including astronomy and space science, atmospheric science, ophthalmology, vision science, microscopy, optical communications, beam control, etc. Notably, AO has achieved significant progress in biomedical optical imaging applications such as microscopy, where generation of high-resolution images of cellular and subcellular structures with high contrast is now possible with AO. Similarly, AO-enabled wavefront aberration measurement and correction in human eye imaging have allowed the in vivo imaging of retinal cells (such as photoreceptors) with unprecedented resolution.

AO is an area of optical research and application that has grown significantly in the last fifteen years as the cost and complexity of suitable beam shaping optics have been reduced at the same time as huge increases in computing power have occurred, making control possible for more complicated systems. The challenge now is the exchange of knowledge between different fields. With the development of increasing performance of components, adaptive optics has entered a wide variety of applications, including a significant growth in commercial application.

This Special Issue opens a window to current developments, with papers covering the breadth of research being undertaken in AO and demonstrating the way that the methodology is now entering mainstream optics and photonics, and different potential applications. In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcomed.

Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:

• Novel design of AO systems for (but not limited to) the following applications:
• Ophthalmology and vision science;
• Astronomy and space science;
• Optical microscopy;
• optical communications;
• Remote sensing;
• Metrology;

• Progress in (but not limited to) AO-enabled biomedical imaging systems: super-resolution microscopy, OCT, laser scanning microscope (confocal and multiphoton microscope), photoacoustic tomography/microscope, optogenetics, and optical tweezers;
• Progress in (but not limited to) biomedical imaging applications: ophthalmology, tissue imaging, microbial (bacteria/biofilm) imaging, brain imaging, cancer imaging, cell imaging, neuroscience, etc.;
• Multimodal optical imaging with AO
• Image processing techniques for AO and non-AO imaging systems;
• Machine learning (ML)/deep learning, and artificial intelligence (AI)-based AO systems;
• Innovations in hardware and software controls for AO systems;
• AO-enabled application-oriented novelties;
• Simulation and theoretical modeling of optical wave propagation in turbulent media;
• Novel optical simulation models of AO systems (such as Zemax) for various imaging and non-imaging applications.

I look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Ratheesh Kumar Meleppat
Guest Editor

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