Method for optimizing the correction of the eye's higher-order aberrations in the presence of decentrations

The use of a correcting element to compensate for higher-order aberrations in an optical system often requires accurate alignment of the correcting element. This is not always possible, as in the case of a contact lens on the eye. We propose a method consisting of partial correction of every aberration term to minimize the average variance of the residual wave-front aberration produced by Gaussian decentrations (translations and rotations). Analytical expressions to estimate the fraction of every aberration term that should be corrected for a given amount of decentration are derived. To demonstrate the application of this method, three examples are used to compare performance with total and with partial correction. The partial correction is more robust and always yields some benefit regardless of the amount of decentration.