We report an application of full-field optical coherence tomography (FF-OCT) for identifying counterfeit bank notes. The depth-resolved imaging capability of FF-OCT was used for tomographic identification of superficially-identical objects. By retrieving the internal structures of the security feature (cash hologram) of an original banknote, we could demonstrate the feasibility of FF-OCT to identify counterfeit money. The FF-OCT images showed that the hologram consisted of micron scale multi-coated layers including an air gap. Therefore, it is expected that FF-OCT has potential as a new non-invasive tool to discern imitation of currency, and it would find applications in a wide field of counterfeit sciences.
Abstract. We have investigated depth-resolved cellular structures of unmodified fresh human scalp hairs with ultrahigh-resolution full-field optical coherence tomography (FF-OCT). The Linnik-type white light interference microscope has been home-implemented to observe the micro-internal layers of human hairs in their natural environment. In hair shafts, FF-OCT has qualitatively revealed the cellular hair compartments of cuticle and cortex layers involved in keratin filaments and melanin granules. No significant difference between black and white hair shafts was observed except for absence of only the melanin granules in the white hair, reflecting that the density of the melanin granules directly affects the hair color. Anatomical description of plucked hair bulbs was also obtained with the FF-OCT in three-dimensions. We expect this approach will be useful for evaluating cellular alteration of natural hairs on cosmetic assessment or diagnosis of hair diseases.
We propose and demonstrate the novel method of refractive index (RI) measurement for each layer of multilayered samples, which is based on numerical refocusing in full field optical coherence tomography (FF-OCT). The en-face FF-OCT image on an inner layer boundary of a multilayered sample is unintentionally blurred or defocused due to the RI of the sample itself, but can be numerically refocused. The refocusing is performed by numerically shifting the image sensor plane of the system, in general. However, by calculating the corresponding sample shift and then compared it with the actual sample shifting distance, we could extract the average RI of the layer between any two layer boundaries within the multilayered sample. In addition, the thickness of that particular layer could be derived at the same time. For the idea proof, several samples were prepared by stacking, for each sample, two transparent plates with a gap in between. While changing the material of the plate and filling the gap with oil, the RIs of the plate and the oil were measured. For oils of various RIs, from 1.2977 to 1.3857, the measured RIs were well matched with the reported ones within 0.205%. Moreover, even with a stack of various and multiple plates in front of the same oil layer, the oil RI and the physical thickness of the oil layer were extracted with average errors of only 0.065% and 0.990%, respectively.
We propose and demonstrate a novel refractive index (RI) measurement by using the numerical-sample-motion based the defocus correction method in full field optical coherence tomography (FF-OCT). Overcoming the general problem in FF-OCT that is the position of the focal plane is separated from the position of the image plane when imaging a deep region inside a sample, we measure the separation distance from the position of the focal plane to the position of the image plane. The RI is determined from the separation distance that is obtained by the numerically adjusted distance of a sample position. With the proposed method, the depth resolved RIs of double layer materials are determined.
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