Closed loop control for intrastromal wavefront-guided ablation

1. A closed-loop system for controlling intrastromal photoablation of stromal tissue of an eye, wherein gas bubbles resulting from the ablation of the tissue introduce induced optical aberrations, said system comprising:

a source for generating an ablation laser beam to photoablate stromal tissue;

a source for generating a diagnostic laser beam, with the diagnostic laser beam including a plurality of component beams;

an active mirror for directing said diagnostic laser beam to a focal spot on the retina of the eye;

a detector for using light of said diagnostic beam reflected from the retina through the bubbles to generate an induced wavefront having characteristics of the induced optical aberrations, together with a distorted wavefront having actual real-time characteristics of the cornea;

a compensator for altering a predetermined desired wavefront by incorporating said induced wavefront therewith to create a rectified wavefront;

a comparator for comparing said rectified wavefront with said distorted wavefront to create an error signal having a plurality of error segments;

a means for reconfiguring said active mirror in response to said plurality of error segments to maintain said focal spot on the retina, wherein said active mirror comprises a plurality of separate reflective elements for individually reflecting respective component beams of the diagnostic beam, and wherein said reconfiguring means individually activates each said reflective element in response to a corresponding segment of said error signal; and

a means for ceasing generation of said ablation beam when said error signal is substantially a nullity.

2. A system as recited in claim 1 wherein said ablation beam is a pulsed laser beam.

3. A system as recited in claim 1 wherein said detector is a Hartmann-Shack sensor unit.

4. A system as recited in claim 1 wherein said desired wavefront is a plane wavefront.

5. A closed-loop system for controlling intrastromal photoablation of tissue in the cornea of an eye, wherein gas bubbles resulting from the ablation of the tissue introduce induced optical aberrations, said system comprising:

a means for detecting an induced wavefront indicative of light passing through the cornea, said induced wavefront including characteristics of the induced optical aberrations;

a means for altering said induced wavefront with a desired wavefront to obtain a rectified wavefront having a plurality of components;

a means for comparing said components of the rectified wavefront with a predetermined distorted wevefront to create an error signal having a plurality of error segments respectively corresponding to components of the rectified wavefront;

a means for using said error signal to activate an ablation laser beam for ablating stromal tissue; and

a means for ceasing generation of the ablation laser beam when au error segments of the error signal are a null.

6. A system as recited in claim 5 wherein said detecting means comprises:

a source for generating a diagnostic laser beam, with the diagnostic laser beam including a plurality of component beams;

an active mirror for directing said diagnostic laser beam to a focal spot on the retina of the eye; and

a detector for using light of said diagnostic beam reflected from the retina through the bubbles to generate respective components for an induced wavefront having characteristics of the induced optical aberrations.

7. A system as recited in claim 6 wherein the detector is a Hartmann-Shack sensor.

8. A system as recited in claim 6 wherein the active mirror comprises a plurality of separate reflective elements for individually reflecting respective component beams of the diagnostic beam.

9. A system as recited in claim 8 wherein the active mirror maintains the focal spot on the retina by separately reconfiguring the reflective elements in response to respective error segments in the error signal.

10. A method for controlling the intrastromal photoablation of tissue of an eye, wherein gas bubbles resulting from, the ablation of tissue introduce induced optical aberrations, the method comprising the steps of:

predetermining a desired wavefront for the eye;

generating a diagnostic laser beam, with the diagnostic laser beam including a plurality of component beams;

using an active mirror to direct the diagnostic laser beam to a focal spot on the retina of the eye, the active mirror having a plurality of separate reflective elements for individually reflecting respective component beams of the diagnostic beam;

using the components of the diagnostic laser beam to identify respective components of an induced wavefront, the induced wavefront being characteristic of the induced optical aberrations;

altering the desired wavefront with the components of the induced wavefront to create a rectified wavefront having respective components;

detecting components of a distorted wavefront with light from the diagnostic beam reflected from the retina, the distorted wavefront having actual real-time characteristics of the cornea;

comparing components of the rectified wavefront with respective components of the distorted wavefront to create a plurality of error segment signals;

reconfiguring respective reflective elements of the active mirror in accordance with the error segment signals to maintain the focal spot of the diagnostic laser beam on the retina;

selectively generating an ablation beam to photoablate stromal tissue; and

ceasing generation of the ablation laser beam when the error segment signals are a null.

11. A method as recited in claim 10 wherein the ablation laser beam is a pulsed laser beam.

12. A method as recited in claim 10 wherein the desired wavefront is a plane wavefront.