Ophthalmic apparatus with a lighting and/or beam therapy ray whose surface intensity distribution can be regulated and device with such an apparatus for eye treatment

Abstract

The ophthalmological apparatus, in particular a slit lamp apparatus, has an observation unit and an illumination unit, which emits a light beam for eye observation and/or treatment purposes, the areal cross-sectional dimension of which beam can be adjusted by means of an adjustable diaphragm. The diaphragm is designed as a planar light modulator ( ) which can be adjusted by a non-mechanical adjusting means and whose local optical properties can be changed and can be changed back again. A radiation impinging on the planar light modulator ( ) has impressed on it by the latter a predetermined geometrical cross-sectional dimension or a predetermined areal intensity distribution as image information. This different intensity distribution has the same effect on or in the eye as the mechanical diaphragms used heretofore. A raster-free generation of image elements is achieved whenever a corresponding image is “written” or “impressed” optically e.g. with a light or laser beam or a projected imaging into the planar light modulator.