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Updated: Jun 11, 2026

Integrated Photoacoustic Ophthalmoscopy and Spectral-domain Optical Coherence Tomography
Published on: January 15, 2013
Fourier domain Pump-Probe Optical Coherence Tomography imaging of melanin
Desmond Jacob1, Ryan L Shelton, Brian E Applegate
1Department of Biomedical Engineering, Texas A&M University, 337 Zachry Engineering Center, College Station, TX 77843, USA.
Abstract:
We report the development of a two-color Fourier domain Pump-Probe Optical Coherence Tomography (PPOCT) system. Tissue phantom experiments to characterize the system performance demonstrated imaging depths in excess of 725 microm, nearly comparable to the base Optical Coherence Tomography system. PPOCT A-line rates were also demonstrated in excess of 1 kHz. The physical origin of the PPOCT signal was investigated with a series of experiments which revealed that the signal is a mixture of short and long lifetime component signals. The short lifetime component was attributed to transient absorption while the long lifetime component may be due to a mixture of transient absorption and thermal effects. Ex vivo images of porcine iris demonstrated the potential for imaging melanin in the eye, where cancer of the melanocytes is the most common form of eye cancer in adults.
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