Three-dimensional imaging by ultrahigh-speed axial-lateral parallel time domain optical coherence tomography

We developed a method for obtaining three-dimensional images of biological tissues using axial-lateral parallel time domain optical coherence tomography (OCT) with an ultrahigh-speed complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) camera. The camera obtains a depth-resolved interference image using diffracted light as the reference beam and a linear illumination beam without axial and vertical scans. We can obtain the OCT images (512 x 512 pixels) at 1,500 frames per second by calculating two sequential images. A sample volume of 5.8 x 2.8 x 2.0 (x x y x z) mm(3) (corresponding to 512 x 250 x 512 pixels) was imaged at six volumes per second in a horizontal mechanical scan. The experimental sensitivity was approximately 76 dB after 2 x 2-pixel binning. The system was successfully used to image the human finger in vivo.