Spectroscopic optical coherence tomography

• Published in: Summaries of papers presented at the Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics pp. 59 - 60
• Main Authors: Kulkarni, M.D., Izatt, J.A.
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: IEEE 1996
• Subjects: Backscatter; Bandwidth; Coherence; Digital filters; Mirrors; Optical filters; Optical interferometry; Spectroscopy; Superluminescent diodes; Tomography
• ISBN: 1557524432; 9781557524430

Summary form only given. Implementations of OCT, which take advantage of the spectral bandwidth of low coherence sources for tissue spectroscopy, have not yet been reported. We describe a novel technique for depth-resolved coherent backscatter spectroscopy, which is an extension of OCT technology. Our system incorporates an OCT scanner illuminated by a superluminescent diode (SLD) at 1.3-/spl mu/m center wavelength. In the low-coherence interferometer, a scanning reference mirror generates the temporal cross-correlation function of light reflected from the reference mirror, and that backscattered from the sample arm target. A separate helium-neon interferometer is utilized for digital correction of artifacts in the low-coherence interferometer output due to nonlinearities in the reference arm retroreflector stage velocity. The low-coherence interferometric signal is digitally demodulated and filtered to obtain the complete complex envelope of the interferometric signal, which is required for the spectroscopic technique. Using this system, low-coherence interferograms with accurate sampling intervals and high dynamic range (>98 dB) are acquired.