A low-cost deformable lens for correction of low-order aberrations

Introducing a reflective deformable mirror into an existing optical system for aberration correction requires a folded optical path and relay optics, increasing of the bulk and cost. This paper proposes a low-cost deformable lens (DL) that can be easily integrated into the existing system for correction of low-order aberrations. It is formed by a transparent medium layer sandwiched between a thick glass plate and a piezo-actuated thin glass plate with a transparent area in the middle. The thin glass plate presses the underlying transparent medium to produce optical path difference for correcting the aberrations of the transmitted light. The fabricated DL prototype accurately reproduced the first 9 Zernike mode shapes. Furthermore, the DL was integrated into a customized microscopy imaging system to correct the aberrations, significantly improving the quality of microscopic images.