A high-speed, depth optical scanner with a longitudinal scan speed of up to and repetition rate of 28.5 kHz was designed. Optical low-coherence reflectometry is used in this non-contacting depth scanning method. A Michelson interferometer uses a glass cube which rotates at a speed of 427 000 rpm as an optical path length variation. Details of the adopted design, the precision glass cube positioning system (tripod), the experimental set-up, and some experimental results are discussed. This technique is especially well suited for biomedical applications in the field of optical tomography of tissues, e.g. skin, retina, etc where motion artefacts of the patients limit the imaging performance.
A rotational high-speed depth scanner for an optical low-coherence reflectometer used for 3-D retina scanning has been developed and analyzed. A rotational speed of 427’000 rpm (in the range between the 4th and 5th critical speed) has been reached for the 5 × 5 × 2 mm3 BK7 glass cube, resulting in a record scan rate for this kind of instrument. This paper reports on our experimental results as well as the FE-modeling of the rotor and the internal-reflection glass cube under centrifugal stress, and on the interplay of mechanical deformation and optical performance. The scanner is mounted on air bearings and driven by an air turbine.
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