Demonstration of tolerance to dispersion of master/slave interferometry

Endoscopic en-face optical coherence tomography and fluorescence imaging using correlation-based probe tracking

Forward-viewing endoscopic optical coherence tomography (OCT) provides 3D imaging in vivo, and can be combined with widefield fluorescence imaging by use of a double-clad fiber. However, it is technically challenging to build a high-performance miniaturized 2D scanning system with a large field-of-view. In this paper we demonstrate how a 1D scanning probe, which produces cross-sectional OCT images (B-scans) and 1D fluorescence T-scans, can be transformed into a 2D scanning probe by manual scanning along the second axis. OCT volumes are assembled from the B-scans using speckle decorrelation measurements to estimate the out-of-plane motion along the manual scan direction. Motion within the plane of the B-scans is corrected using image registration by normalized cross correlation. En-face OCT slices and fluorescence images, corrected for probe motion in 3D, can be displayed in real-time during the scan. For a B-scan frame rate of 250 Hz, and an OCT lateral resolution of approximately 20 μ m , the approach can handle out-of-plane motion at speeds of up to 4 mm/s.

En-face optical coherence tomography/fluorescence endomicroscopy for minimally invasive imaging using a robotic scanner

We report a compact rigid instrument capable of delivering en-face optical coherence tomography (OCT) images alongside (epi)-fluorescence endomicroscopy (FEM) images by means of a robotic scanning device. Two working imaging channels are included: one for a one-dimensional scanning, forward-viewing OCT probe and another for a fiber bundle used for the FEM system. The robotic scanning system provides the second axis of scanning for the OCT channel while allowing the field of view (FoV) of the FEM channel to be increased by mosaicking. The OCT channel has resolutions of 25  /  60  μm (axial/lateral) and can provide en-face images with an FoV of 1.6  ×  2.7  mm2. The FEM channel has a lateral resolution of better than 8  μm and can generate an FoV of 0.53  ×  3.25  mm2 through mosaicking. The reproducibility of the scanning was determined using phantoms to be better than the lateral resolution of the OCT channel. Combined OCT and FEM imaging were validated with ex-vivo ovine and porcine tissues, with the instrument mounted on an arm to ensure constant contact of the probe with the tissue. The OCT imaging system alone was validated for in-vivo human dermal imaging with the handheld instrument. In both cases, the instrument was capable of resolving fine features such as the sweat glands in human dermal tissue and the alveoli in porcine lung tissue.

En face optical coherence tomography: a technology review [Invited]

A review on the technological development of en face optical coherence tomography (OCT) and optical coherence microscopy (OCM) is provided. The terminology originally referred to time domain OCT, where the preferential scanning was performed in the en face plane. Potentially the fastest realization of en face image recording is full-field OCT, where the full en face plane is illuminated and recorded simultaneously. The term has nowadays been adopted for high-speed Fourier domain approaches, where the en face image is reconstructed from full 3D volumes either by direct slicing or through axial projection in post processing. The success of modern en face OCT lies in its immediate and easy image interpretation, which is in particular of advantage for OCM or OCT angiography. Applications of en face OCT with a focus on ophthalmology are presented. The review concludes by outlining exciting technological prospects of en face OCT based both on time as well as on Fourier domain OCT.

Down-conversion en-face optical coherence tomography

We present an optical coherence tomography (OCT) method that can deliver an en-face OCT image from a sample in real-time, irrespective of the tuning speed of the swept source. The method, based on the master slave interferometry technique, implements a coherence gate principle by requiring that the optical path difference (OPD) between the arms of an imaging interferometer is the same with the OPD in an interrogating interferometer. In this way, a real-time en-face OCT image can originate from a depth in the sample placed in the imaging interferometer, selected by actuating on the OPD in the interrogating interferometer, while laterally scanning the incident beam over the sample. The generation of the en-face image resembles time domain OCT, with the difference that here the signal is processed based on spectral domain OCT. The optoelectronic processor operates down-conversion of the chirped radio frequency signal delivered by the photo-detector. The down-conversion factor is equal to the ratio of the maximum frequency of the photo-detected signal due to an OPD value matching the coherence length of the swept source, to the sweeping rate. This factor can exceed 10⁶ for long coherence swept sources.

Group refractive index and group velocity dispersion measurement by complex master slave interferometry

This paper demonstrates that the complex master slave interferometry (CMSI) method used in spectral domain interferometry (SDI) can efficiently be used for accurate refractive index and group velocity dispersion measurements of optically transparent samples. For the first time, we demonstrate the relevance of the phase information delivered by CMSI for dispersion evaluations with no need to linearize data. The technique proposed here has been used to accurately measure the group refractive index and the group velocity dispersion of a strong dispersive sample (SF6 glass), and a weak dispersive one (distilled water). The robustness of the technique is demonstrated through the manipulation of several sets of experimental data.

All-depth dispersion cancellation in spectral domain optical coherence tomography using numerical intensity correlations

In ultra-high resolution (UHR-) optical coherence tomography (OCT) group velocity dispersion (GVD) must be corrected for in order to approach the theoretical resolution limit. One approach promises not only compensation, but complete annihilation of even order dispersion effects, and that at all sample depths. This approach has hitherto been demonstrated with an experimentally demanding ‘balanced detection’ configuration based on using two detectors. We demonstrate intensity correlation (IC) OCT using a conventional spectral domain (SD) UHR-OCT system with a single detector. IC-SD-OCT configurations exhibit cross term ghost images and a reduced axial range, half of that of conventional SD-OCT. We demonstrate that both shortcomings can be removed by applying a generic artefact reduction algorithm and using analytic interferograms. We show the superiority of IC-SD-OCT compared to conventional SD-OCT by showing how IC-SD-OCT is able to image spatial structures behind a strongly dispersive silicon wafer. Finally, we question the resolution enhancement of \documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$\sqrt{2}$$\end{document}2 that IC-SD-OCT is often believed to have compared to SD-OCT. We show that this is simply the effect of squaring the reflectivity profile as a natural result of processing the product of two intensity spectra instead of a single spectrum.

Gabor fusion master slave optical coherence tomography

This paper describes the application of the Gabor filtering protocol to a Master/Slave (MS) swept source optical coherence tomography (SS)-OCT system at 1300 nm. The MS-OCT system delivers information from selected depths, a property that allows operation similar to that of a time domain OCT system, where dynamic focusing is possible. The Gabor filtering processing following collection of multiple data from different focus positions is different from that utilized by a conventional swept source OCT system using a Fast Fourier transform (FFT) to produce an A-scan. Instead of selecting the bright parts of A-scans for each focus position, to be placed in a final B-scan image (or in a final volume), and discarding the rest, the MS principle can be employed to advantageously deliver signal from the depths within each focus range only. The MS procedure is illustrated on creating volumes of data of constant transversal resolution from a cucumber and from an insect by repeating data acquisition for 4 different focus positions. In addition, advantage is taken from the tolerance to dispersion of the MS principle that allows automatic compensation for dispersion created by layers above the object of interest. By combining the two techniques, Gabor filtering and Master/Slave, a powerful imaging instrument is demonstrated. The master/slave technique allows simultaneous display of three categories of images in one frame: multiple depth en-face OCT images, two cross-sectional OCT images and a confocal like image obtained by averaging the en-face ones. We also demonstrate the superiority of MS-OCT over its FFT based counterpart when used with a Gabor filtering OCT instrument in terms of the speed of assembling the fused volume. For our case, we show that when more than 4 focus positions are required to produce the final volume, MS is faster than the conventional FFT based procedure.

Fast Industrial Inspection of Optical Thin Film Using Optical Coherence Tomography

An application of spectral domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) was demonstrated for a fast industrial inspection of an optical thin film panel. An optical thin film sample similar to a liquid crystal display (LCD) panel was examined. Two identical SD-OCT systems were utilized for parallel scanning of a complete sample in half time. Dual OCT inspection heads were utilized for transverse (fast) scanning, while a stable linear motorized translational stage was used for lateral (slow) scanning. The cross-sectional and volumetric images of an optical thin film sample were acquired to detect the defects in glass and other layers that are difficult to observe using visual inspection methods. The rapid inspection enabled by this setup led to the early detection of product defects on the manufacturing line, resulting in a significant improvement in the quality assurance of industrial products.

Master/slave optical coherence tomography imaging of eyelid basal cell carcinoma

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is fast emerging as an additional non-interventional modality for skin tumor detection and diagnosis. A master/slave flying spot OCT configuration was assembled to detect periocular basal cell carcinomas (BCC). A swept source at 1300 nm and sweeping speed of 50 kHz were used. A three-step process was involved. First, 384 channeled spectra using a mirror were stored for 384 optical path differences at the master stage. Then, the stored channeled spectra (masks) were correlated with the channeled spectrum from the BCC tissue to produce 384 en face OCT images (200×200 pixels) for the optical path difference values used to acquire the masks. Finally, these en face slices were stacked to form a volume to cross-reference BCC tumor margins in the orthogonal plane. Per each eyelid sample, several en face images of 200×200 lateral pixels are produced in the time to scan laterally a complete raster of 1.6 s. Combination of the en face views with the cross-sectioning views allow for better discrimination of BCCs comparable to using cross-sectional imaging alone, as previously reported using the conventional fast-Fourier-transform-based OCT techniques.

Master/slave interferometry - ideal tool for coherence revival swept source optical coherence tomography

In this paper, we demonstrate that the master slave (MS) interferometry method can significantly simplify the practice of coherence revival swept source optical coherence tomography (OCT) technique. Previous implementations of the coherence revival technique required considerable resources on dispersion compensation and data resampling. The total tolerance of the MS method to nonlinear tuning, to dispersion in the interferometer and to dispersion due to the laser cavity, makes the MS ideally suited to the practice of coherence revival. In addition, enhanced versatility is allowed by the MS method in displaying shorter axial range images than that determined by the digital sampling of the data. This brings an immediate improvement in the speed of displaying cross-sectional images at high rates without the need of extra hardware such as graphics processing units or field programmable gate arrays. The long axial range of the coherence revival regime is proven with images of the anterior segment of healthy human volunteers.

Complex master slave interferometry

A general theoretical model is developed to improve the novel Spectral Domain Interferometry method denoted as Master/Slave (MS) Interferometry. In this model, two functions, g and h are introduced to describe the modulation chirp of the channeled spectrum signal due to nonlinearities in the decoding process from wavenumber to time and due to dispersion in the interferometer. The utilization of these two functions brings two major improvements to previous implementations of the MS method. A first improvement consists in reducing the number of channeled spectra necessary to be collected at Master stage. In previous MSI implementation, the number of channeled spectra at the Master stage equated the number of depths where information was selected from at the Slave stage. The paper demonstrates that two experimental channeled spectra only acquired at Master stage suffice to produce A-scans from any number of resolved depths at the Slave stage. A second improvement is the utilization of complex signal processing. Previous MSI implementations discarded the phase. Complex processing of the electrical signal determined by the channeled spectrum allows phase processing that opens several novel avenues. A first consequence of such signal processing is reduction in the random component of the phase without affecting the axial resolution. In previous MSI implementations, phase instabilities were reduced by an average over the wavenumber that led to reduction in the axial resolution.

Master slave en-face OCT/SLO

Master Slave optical coherence tomography (MS-OCT) is an OCT method that does not require resampling of data and can be used to deliver en-face images from several depths simultaneously. As the MS-OCT method requires important computational resources, the number of multiple depth en-face images that can be produced in real-time is limited. Here, we demonstrate progress in taking advantage of the parallel processing feature of the MS-OCT technology. Harnessing the capabilities of graphics processing units (GPU)s, information from 384 depth positions is acquired in one raster with real time display of up to 40 en-face OCT images. These exhibit comparable resolution and sensitivity to the images produced using the conventional Fourier domain based method. The GPU facilitates versatile real time selection of parameters, such as the depth positions of the 40 images out of the set of 384 depth locations, as well as their axial resolution. In each updated displayed frame, in parallel with the 40 en-face OCT images, a scanning laser ophthalmoscopy (SLO) lookalike image is presented together with two B-scan OCT images oriented along rectangular directions. The thickness of the SLO lookalike image is dynamically determined by the choice of number of en-face OCT images displayed in the frame and the choice of differential axial distance between them.