Autocorrelation optical coherence tomography for mapping transverse particle-flow velocity

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Optics
• Fluid Dynamics
• Optical Metrology

Background:

• Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) is a powerful imaging technique.
• Measuring fluid flow velocity is crucial in various scientific and medical fields.
• Existing methods for flow velocity measurement can be limited in certain applications.

Purpose of the Study:

• To present a novel autocorrelation method for quantitative transverse particle-flow velocity mapping.
• To utilize Fourier-domain optical coherence tomography (FD-OCT) for this measurement.
• To validate the proposed method experimentally.

Main Methods:

• An autocorrelation method was developed based on intensity fluctuations of backscattered light.
• The method analyzes the transit time encoded by flowing particles passing through the probe beam.
• The slope of the normalized autocorrelation function is correlated with transverse velocity.

Main Results:

• The autocorrelation method successfully mapped transverse particle-flow velocity.
• Experimental verification was performed using an intralipid scattering flow phantom.
• The results demonstrated a quantitative relationship between the autocorrelation function slope and velocity.

Conclusions:

• The proposed autocorrelation method provides a quantitative approach for measuring transverse particle-flow velocity.
• FD-OCT combined with this method offers a promising tool for flow dynamics studies.
• This technique has potential applications in areas requiring precise flow measurement.