Fourier domain optical coherence tomography with ultralong depth range

Abstract

The depth ranges of typical implementations of Fourier domain optical coherence tomography (FDOCT), including spectral domain OCT (SDOCT) and swept source OCT (SSOCT), are limited to several millimeters. To extend the depth range of current OCT systems, two novel systems with ultralong depth range were developed in this study. One is the orthogonal dispersive SDOCT (OD-SDOCT), and the other is the recirculated swept source (R-SS) interferometer/OCT. No compromise between depth range and depth resolution is required in both systems. The developed OD-SDOCT system realized the longest depth range (over 100 mm) ever achieved by SDOCT, which is ready to be modified for depth-encoded parallel imaging on multiple sites. The developed R-SS interferometer achieved submicron precision within a depth range of 30 mm, holding potential in real-time contact-free on-axis metrology of complex optical systems.

Keywords

optical coherence tomography (OCT) / virtually-imaged phased array (VIPA) / orthogonal dispersion / swept source / light recirculation / parallel imaging / dimensional metrology

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge financial supports from the NationalNatural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 61275196, 61335003 and 61327007), Zhejiang Province Science and Technology Grant (No. 2012C33031), Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China (No. LY14F050007), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. 2014QNA5017).

RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

2014 Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg