Aberration Correction in Confocal Microscopy using Adaptive Optics

We present a confocal microscope, incorporating adaptive optics (AO), to correct for sample-induced aberrations. Adaptive optics is a technology used for aberration correction by wavefront shaping. One common method used to determine the wavefront correction required is a sensor-less modal approach where each Zernike mode is corrected for in turn by measuring the change in intensity at a detector. Here we discuss the experimental features that need to be optimised in order to successfully implement this approach. Setup features like variable pinhole size detection using an EMCCD camera as well as a method for aligning the deformable membrane mirror and the microscope objective will be presented. Differences between reflection and fluorescent confocal microscopy, in a setup using a deformable membrane mirror, will be discussed. We will show that the setup designed is suitable for aberration correction using a sensor-less modal approach.