SYSTEM FOR FORMING AND MODIFYING LENSES AND LENSES FORMED THEREBY
A lens for placement in a human eye, such as intraocular lens, has at least some of its optical properties formed with a laser. The laser forms modified loci in the lens when the modified loci have a different refractive index than the refractive index of the material before modification. Different patterns of modified loci can provide selected dioptic power, toric adjustment, and/or aspheric adjustment provided. Preferably both the anterior and posterior surfaces of the lens are planar for ease of placement in the human eye.
1 - 64 . (canceled)
65 . A system for modifying an optical property of a polymeric disc sized for use in a human eye and having opposed surfaces, the system comprising:
a) a laser for emitting a pulsed beam;
b) a modulator for controlling the pulse rate of the beam;
c) a focusing lens for focusing the beam into a first region in the disc;
d) a scanner for distributing the focused beam into a plurality of contiguous loci in the first region, the focused beam causing the nonlinear absorption of photons in the contiguous loci resulting in a change to the refractive index of each locus and forming a portion of a contiguous patterned microstructure within the layer, wherein the contiguous patterned microstructure modifies the optical property of the disc;
e) means for repositioning the disc relative to the focusing lens so as to focus the beam into a second region in the disc.
66 . The system of claim 65 wherein the disc is an intraocular lens.
67 . The system of claim 65 wherein the focusing lens focuses the beam into a layer between the opposed surfaces.
68 . The system of claim 65 wherein the modulator produces pulses between 50 and 100 MHz repetition rate.
69 . The system of claim 65 wherein each pulse emitted by the laser has a duration of from about 50 to about 100 femtoseconds and an energy level of at least about 0.2 nJ.
70 . The system of claim 65 wherein the focusing lens comprises a microscope objective.
71 . The system of claim 65 wherein the focusing lens focuses the pulsed beam to a locus spot size of about 1 μm diameter.
72 . The system of claim 65 wherein the focusing lens focuses the beam to a depth of focus of less than 5 μm.
73 . The system of claim 65 wherein the scanner is a raster scanner.
74 . The system of claim 73 where the raster scanner covers a field of view of about 500 μm.
75 . The system of claim 65 wherein the scanner is a flying spot scanner.
76 . The system of claim 65 further comprising an adaptive-optics module to simulate the effect of a refractive correction.
77 - 110 . (canceled)