Method for modifying the refractive index of an optical material

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9622912-B2
Application number	US-201414564207-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 9, 2014
Priority date	Jun 28, 2006
Publication date	Apr 18, 2017
Grant date	Apr 18, 2017

Abstract

An optical device comprising an optical hydrogel with select regions that have been irradiated with laser light having a pulse energy from 0.01 nJ to 50 nJ and a wavelength from 600 nm to 900 nm. The irradiated regions are characterized by a positive change in refractive index of from 0.01 to 0.06, and exhibit little or no scattering loss. The optical hydrogel is prepared with a hydrophilic monomer.

First claim

We claim:

1. A method of changing the index of refraction of an optical hydrogel that is a component of an optical device for vision correction, the method comprising: providing a physician with a laser system to irradiate select regions of the optical hydrogel following implantation of the optical device into the eye of the patient, the laser system comprising a laser having a laser pulse energy from 0.01 nJ to 50 nJ and a light wavelength from 600 nm to 900 nm; wherein the irradiated regions are formed by scanning the laser light in an X-Y plane, the irradiated regions characterized by a positive change in refractive index of from 0.01 to 0.06.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the irradiated regions comprise an area or volume filled structure.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the area or volume filled structure is defined by a series of line scans, the line scans having a width from 0.2 μm to 3 μm, and a height from 0.4 μm to 8 μm, wherein the height is measured in a Z-direction parallel to the laser beam.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the laser light has a pulse width and the laser system includes negative compensation to compensate for a positive dispersion of the laser pulse width introduced by focusing objectives.

5. The method of claim 2 wherein the area or volume filled structure is a vertically stacked structure wherein the irradiated regions are formed separately in different planes in the hydrogel in a Z-direction parallel to the laser beam.

6. The method of claim 2 wherein the laser light has a pulse energy from 0.2 nJ to 10 nJ.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the optical device is selected from an intraocular lens, a corneal inlay, a corneal ring or a keratoprothesis.

8. A method for modifying the refractive index of an optical, polymeric material, the method comprising irradiating select regions of the optical, polymeric material with a focused, visible or near-IR laser having a pulse energy from 0.05 nJ to 1000 nJ, wherein the irradiated regions exhibit a change in refractive index of at least 0.01.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the irradiated regions and regions having no irradiation have no significant differences in the Raman spectrum.

10. The method of claim 8 wherein the pulse energy of the laser is from 0.2 nJ to 100 nJ.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein the visible or near-IR laser generates pulses having a pulse width of 4 fs to 100 fs.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein the the pulse width is maintained by a compensation scheme selected from the group consisting of at least two prisms and at least one mirror, at least two diffraction gratings, a chirped mirror and dispersion compensating mirrors to compensate for positive dispersion introduced by a focus objective.

13. The method of claim 8 wherein the pulse energy of the laser is from 0.5 nJ to to 10 nJ.

14. The method of claim 8 wherein the region of the optical material irradiated by the laser exhibits a positive change in the refractive index from 0.02 to 0.06.

15. The method of claim 8 wherein the optical material is an intraocular lens that has been positioned in the lens capsule of a patient.

16. The method of claim 8 wherein the optical, polymeric material is a hydrogel.

17. The method of claim 8 wherein the optical polymeric material is formed into an optical device containing the irradiated regions.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein the step of irradiating select regions forms a three dimensional structure within the optical device.

19. The method of claim 17 in which the optical device is selected from the group consisting of an intraocular lens, a corneal inlay, a corneal ring or a keraprothesis.

20. The method of claim 19 wherein the optical polymeric material is prepared from (meth)acrylate monomer selected from the group consisting of 2-hydroxymethyl (meth)acrylate, 2-phenylethyl (meth)acrylate, methyl(meth)acrylate and 3-phenylpropyl (meth)acrylate.

Assignees

• Univ Rochester

Inventors

• Knox Wayne H
• Ding Li
• Kunzler Jay F
• Jani Dharmendra

Classifications

• G02C2202/14

  Photorefractive lens material · CPC title

• A61F2/16

  Intraocular lenses · CPC title

• B29D11/00461

  Adjusting the refractive index, e.g. after implanting · CPC title

• C08J7/123

  Treatment by wave energy or particle radiation (C08J7/18 takes precedence) · CPC title

• G02C7/022

  Ophthalmic lenses having special refractive features achieved by special materials or material structures (G02C7/049 takes precedence) · CPC title