Modeling and Control of Deformable Membrane Mirrors

The use of deformable mirrors (DMs) in adaptive optics (AO) systems allows for compensation of various external and internal optical disturbances during image aquisition. For example, an astronomical telescope equipped with a fast deformable secondary mirror can compensate for atmospheric disturbances and wind shake of the telescope structure resulting in higher image resolution [1–4]. In microscopy, deformable mirrors allow to correct for aberrations caused by local variations of the refractive index of observed specimen. Especially confocal and multi-photon microscopes particularly benefit from the improved resolution for visualization of cellular structures and subcellular processes [5, 6]. In addition, results of applied adaptive optics for detection of eye diseases and in vitro retinal imaging on the cellular level show promising examination and treatment opportunities [7–9].