Facilities

The group working in the field of Optics and Optometry of the University of Milano-Bicocca is multidisciplinary. The main research activities concern optometry, contact lens fitting, materials science, optical systems, optics and spectroscopy for application in ophthalmic/optometric instrumentation, biology, visual perception.

Optometry

  • Manual and computerized phoropters
  • Automatic lensmeter
  • Digital slit lamps
  • Autoref / Keratometer
  • Open-field autoref
  • Digital non-mydriatic retinal camera with fundus autofluorescence (FAF)
  • Non-contact Tonometer / Pachymeter
  • Rebound Tonometer
  • Corneal topographer – Scheimpflug Camera / Ocular aberrometer
  • Topographer / Biometer
  • Optical coherence tomograph
  • Corneal endothelial microscope
  • Digital Vision Screener (VisioSmart)
  • LCD vision chart
  • Javal-Schiotz and Helmholtz keratometer
  • Ophthalmoscopes and retinoscopes
  • Osmolarity system
  • Dacrioscope
  • Goldmann kinetic perimeter and automated static perimeter
  • Laboratory-to-classroom digital live connection
  • Video centration system

Optics and spectroscopy

  • Spectrophotometers for UV-visible-NIR transmission and reflectivity analyses (both solutions and solid samples), both in specular configuration and by integrating sphere for the diffuse light
  • UV-visible spectrometer for absorbance measurements on a few microliters of liquids
  • Solar simulator light source and equipment for analyses on photochromatic lenses
  • Variable-angle spectroscopic ellipsometer (200-1700 nm) for measurements of refractive index, Abbe number, and/or thickness of bulk samples, monolayer, and multilayers
  • Instrumentation for photoluminescence analyses
  • Instrumentation for spectrally-resolved illuminance and photometric analyses
  • Spectroradiometer
  • Refractometer for liquids
  • Contrast and MTF analyses on optical systems, such as ophthalmics lenses
  • Optical polarized microscope and fluorescence microscope
  • Ray-tracing optical simulation techniques

Surface characterization: AFM laboratory, profilometer, tribometer

  • AFM (Atomic Force Microscopy) to elaborate/model the contact lens surface morphology at micrometric and nanometric scale
  • Profilometer to analyze different surfaces at macroscopic and micrometric scale
  • Nanotribometer to test contact lenses in liquid

SEM interdipartimental laboratory

SEM (Scanning electron microscope) can produce images of different samples; for example, it can provide images of the contact lenses to study their morphology changes before and after the fitting depending on protein, lipid and maintenance solutions components absorption

NanoMat@Lab

Development of new hybrid materials for contact lenses and ophthalmic lenses and EPR (Electron Paramagnetic Resonance) analysis

and…

  • DSC (Differential Scanning Calorimetry) Laboratory
  • Biology Laboratory
  • Organic chemistry laboratory