Pulsed-source and swept-source spectral-domain optical coherence tomography with reduced motion artifacts

Area of Science:

• Optical Engineering
• Biomedical Imaging
• Metrology

Background:

• Conventional spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) is susceptible to motion artifacts.
• These artifacts stem from sample or probe movement during the charge-coupled device (CCD) array's exposure time.
• Motion artifacts degrade image quality and limit diagnostic accuracy in OCT.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate methods for significantly reducing motion artifacts in SD-OCT.
• To demonstrate the efficacy of short illumination of individual CCD pixels.
• To evaluate the performance of broadband pulsed and continuous-wave (CW) wavelength-swept light sources in mitigating motion artifacts.

Main Methods:

• Implementing short illumination of individual CCD pixels during data acquisition.
• Utilizing broadband pulsed light sources.
• Employing CW wavelength-swept light sources.
• Experimentally assessing signal fading in the presence of axial sample motion and high-speed rotational motion (fiber-optic catheter).

Main Results:

• Motion artifacts were greatly reduced by employing short illumination of individual CCD pixels.
• Both broadband pulsed and CW wavelength-swept sources effectively minimized motion-induced signal fading.
• Demonstrated significant reduction in signal fading for axially moving samples and high-speed rotating fiber-optic catheters.

Conclusions:

• Short illumination of individual CCD pixels is a highly effective strategy for reducing motion artifacts in SD-OCT.
• The use of broadband pulsed or CW wavelength-swept light sources enables significant artifact reduction.
• These techniques improve image quality and reliability in OCT imaging of dynamic samples.