Spatial coherence enabled sensorless adaptive optical imaging

Abstract

Optical aberrations degrade imaging performance in label-free microscopy, where the absence of a guide star often necessitates sensorless adaptive optics (AO). Conventional sensorless AO approaches rely on image-quality metrics whose optimal choice depends on both the specimen and the imaging modality. Here, we present a guide-star-free AO framework based on the spatial coherence properties of spatially incoherent light. The proposed method exploits aberration-induced broadening of the measured spatial correlation distribution as the feedback signal for aberration correction. Experiments in a conventional bright-field imaging system using standard LED illumination demonstrate successful correction of phase aberrations. Furthermore, the approach remains effective even in the presence of spatially structured background noise. These results establish spatial coherence measurements as an effective feedback mechanism for sensorless AO and indicate that the correlation-based feedback principle employed in quantum-assisted AO can likewise be realized using the spatial correlations of incoherent light.