Abstract
Full-field swept-source optical coherence tomography (FF-SS-OCT) provides high-resolution depth-resolved images of the sample by parallel Fourier-domain interferometric detection. Although FF-SS-OCT implements high-speed volumetric imaging, it suffers from the cross-talk-generated noise from spatially coherent lasers. This noise reduces the transversal image resolution, which in turn, limits the wide adaptation of FF-SS-OCT for practical and clinical applications. Here, we introduce the novel spatiotemporal optical coherence (STOC) manipulation. In STOC the time-varying inhomogeneous phase masks are used to modulate the light incident on the sample. By properly adjusting these phase masks, the spatial coherence can be reduced. Consequently, the cross-talk-generated noise is suppressed, the transversal image resolution is improved by the factor of , and sample features become visible. STOC approach is validated by imaging 1951 USAF resolution test chart covered by the diffuser, scattering phantom and the rat skin ex vivo. In all these cases STOC suppresses the cross-talk-generated noise, and importantly, do not compromise the transversal resolution. Thus, our method provides an enhancement of FF-SS-OCT that can be beneficial for imaging biological samples.
Highlights
Full-field optical coherence tomography (FF-OCT) achieves high-resolution volumetric images of the sample with wide-field illumination and parallel, interferometric detection of the backscattered light [1,2,3,4,5,6]
We present a novel method, in which the cross-talk-generated noise in FF-SS-OCT is suppressed by spatiotemporal optical coherence (STOC) manipulation [28]
We show that STOC manipulation suppresses artifacts, typical for spatially coherent illumination and improves spatial resolution by a factor of 2 with respect to the unmodulated case
Summary
Full-field optical coherence tomography (FF-OCT) achieves high-resolution volumetric images of the sample with wide-field illumination and parallel, interferometric detection of the backscattered light [1,2,3,4,5,6]. Contrary to conventional OCT systems [7], FF-OCT does not rely on the transversal scanning of the incident beam. The sample volume is illuminated at once and the interferometric signal is recorded by a multi-pixel light sensor or imaging spectrometer [8]. Like any other OCT systems, FF-OCT uses light sources with lowtemporal coherence to introduce axial sectioning. An additional advantage of such “coherence gating” is the rejection of backscattered light that travels longer than the effective coherence time of the light source [7]. For applications that aim at depicting true eye topology [13]
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