title: Properties of coherence-gated wavefront sensing.
abstract: Coherence-gated wavefront sensing (CGWS) allows the determination of wavefront aberrations in strongly scattering tissue and their correction by adaptive optics. This allows, e.g., the restoration of the diffraction limit in light microscopy. Here, we develop a model, based on ray tracing of ballistic light scattered from a set of discrete scatterers, to characterize CGWS performance as it depends on coherence length, scatterer density, coherence-gate position, and polarization. The model is evaluated by using Monte Carlo simulation and verified against experimental measurements. We show, in particular, that all aberrations needed for adaptive wavefront restoration are correctly sensed if circularly polarized light is used.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Optics, Max-Planck Institute for Medical Research, Jahnstrasse 29, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany. markus.rueckel@mpimf-heidelberg.mpg.de
authors.forename: Markus
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rueckel
authors.forename: Winfried
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Denk
mesh_terms: D008027:Light; D009010:Monte Carlo Method; D055095:Optics and Photonics; D012029:Refraction, Ocular; D012542:Scattering, Radiation