Design of a Linear Wavenumber Spectrometer for Line Scanning Optical Coherence Tomography with 50 mm Focal Length Cylindrical Optics

Abstract

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) has a wide range of uses in bioimaging and nondestructive testing. Larger bandwidth light sources have recently been implemented to enhance measurement resolution. Increased bandwidth has a negative impact on spectral nonlinearity in k space, notably in the case of spectral domain OCT (SD-OCT). This nonlinearity reduces the depth-dependent signal sensitivity of the spectrometers. A grating and prism combination is extensively used for linearizing. In an earlier study, we used a combination of the reflective grating and prism, as well as a cylindrical mirror with a radius of 180 mm, to achieve a high SR ratio with low nonlinearity. A creative design for a spectrometer with a cylindrical mirror of radius 50 mm, a light source with a center wavelength of 830 ± 100 nm (μm−1 − 6.756 μm−1 in k-space), and a grating of 1600 lines/mm is presented in this work. The design optimization is performed using MATLAB and ZEMAX. In the proposed design, the nonlinearity error reduced from 157∘× μm to 10.75∘× μm within the wavenumber range considered. The sensitivity research revealed that, with the new design, the SR ratio is extremely sensitive to the imaging optics’ angles. To resolve this, a spectrometer based on Grism is introduced. We present a Grism-based spectrometer with an optimized SR ratio of 0.97 and nonlinearity of 0.792∘× μm (Δθ/Δk). According to the sensitivity study, the Grism-based spectrometer is more robust.