Model eyes for evaluation of intraocular lenses

In accordance with the present international standard for intraocular lenses (IOLs), their imaging performance should be measured in a model eye having an aberration-free cornea. This was an acceptable setup when IOLs had all surfaces spherical and hence the measured result reflected the spherical aberration of the IOL. With newer IOLs designed to compensate for the spherical aberration of the cornea there is a need for a model eye with a physiological level of spherical aberration in the cornea. A literature review of recent studies indicated a fairly high amount of spherical aberration in human corneas. Two model eyes are proposed. One is a modification of the present ISO standard, replacing the current achromat doublet with an aspheric singlet cut in poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA). The other also has an aspheric singlet cut in PMMA, but the dimensions of it and the entire model eye are close to the physiological dimensions of the eye. They give equivalent results when the object is at infinity, but for finite object distances only the latter is correct. The two models are analyzed by calculation assuming IOLs with different degrees of asphericity to elucidate their sensitivity to variation and propose tolerances. Measured results in a variant of the modified ISO model eye are presented.