Patent ID: 7466423

Claim:
Optical mapping apparatus for imaging an object, comprising: an optical coherence tomography (OCT) system including: an OCT source, an OCT reference path leading from the OCT source to an OCT receiver, an OCT object path leading from the object to the OCT receiver, and an OCT depth scanner adapted to alter at least one of the OCT reference path and the OCT object path so as to adjust an OCT optical path difference to enable the OCT system to obtain OCT image data from different axial depths within the object; a confocal system including: a confocal source, a confocal optical receiver, and a confocal path leading from the object to the confocal optical receiver, the confocal system being arranged to obtain confocal image data from the object; an adaptive optics (AO) system including: a wavefront corrector and a wavefront sensor, the adaptive optics system being arranged to transfer a wavefront sensing beam along a wavefront sensing path leading from the object to the wavefront sensor, and; wherein the apparatus is arranged such that there is a first common path shared by a portion of the wavefront sensing path, a portion of the OCT object path and a portion of the confocal path, and there is a second common path shared by a portion of the OCT object path and a portion of the confocal path, and wherein the adaptive optics system is adapted to correct for optical aberrations in the first common path by means of the actuation of the wavefront corrector under control of the wavefront sensor.