Full-range swept source optical coherence tomography based on carrier frequency by transmissive dispersive optical...

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Optics
• Optical Imaging
• Metrology

Background:

• Conventional optical coherence tomography (OCT) systems often face limitations in achieving full-range imaging due to overlaying mirror artifacts.
• Swept source OCT (SS-OCT) offers high speed but requires advanced techniques for unambiguous depth determination.
• Existing methods for full-range imaging in OCT can be complex or introduce their own artifacts.

Purpose of the Study:

• To present a high-speed swept source optical coherence tomography (SS-OCT) system capable of full-range imaging.
• To introduce a novel method for generating a wave-number carrier frequency within the spectral interference signal.
• To validate the performance and feasibility of the proposed TDODL-based full-range imaging technique.

Main Methods:

• Development of a high-speed SS-OCT system incorporating a transmissive dispersive optical delay line (TDODL).
• Introduction of a wave-number carrier frequency into the spectral interference signal via the TDODL.
• Theoretical analysis using the instantaneous coherence function to describe the spectral interference signal.
• Experimental validation through in vivo imaging of biological samples.

Main Results:

• The TDODL effectively introduces a high carrier frequency in the spectral interference signal, enabling full-range OCT imaging.
• The proposed method demonstrates a performance advantage over conventional approaches by avoiding overlaying mirror artifacts.
• Measured envelopes of the spectral interference signal confirm the superiority of the TDODL-based technique.
• Successful in vivo imaging of a biological sample validates the feasibility of the custom-built SS-OCT system.

Conclusions:

• The developed SS-OCT system with TDODL successfully achieves full-range imaging.
• The wave-number carrier frequency method provides a robust solution for overcoming range ambiguity in OCT.
• This technique offers enhanced imaging capabilities for biological samples, paving the way for improved diagnostic tools.