Optical side-effects of fs-laser treatment in refractive surgery are investigated by means of a model eye. We show that rainbow glare is the predominant perturbation, which can be avoided by randomly distributing laser spots within the lens. For corneal applications such as fs-LASIK, even a regular grid with spot-to-spot distances of ~3 µm is sufficient to minimize rainbow glare perception. Contrast sensitivity is affected, when the lens is treated with large 3D-patterns.
Keywords: (320.2250) Femtosecond phenomena; (330.1720) Color vision; (330.4460) Ophthalmic optics and devices; (330.7335) Visual optics, refractive surgery.