High-throughput optical coherence tomography at 800 nm

Abstract

We report high-throughput optical coherence tomography (OCT) that offers 1,000 times higher axial scan rate than conventional OCT in the 800 nm spectral range. This is made possible by employing photonic time-stretch for chirping a pulse train and transforming it into a passive swept source. We demonstrate a record high axial scan rate of 90.9 MHz. To show the utility of our method, we also demonstrate real-time observation of laser ablation dynamics. Our high-throughput OCT is expected to be useful for industrial applications where the speed of conventional OCT falls short.

Photonic compressive sensing enabled data efficient time stretch optical coherence tomography

“…The wavelength sweeping speed is further improved by photonic time stretch (PTS) method 4 . PTS-OCT has enabled detection of transient and fast changing dynamics 5 with an unprecedented A-scan rate of 90 MHz.…”

“…However, the PTS-OCT systems 5,6 always suffer from continuous massive data generation and the requirement of high speed acquisition equipment. On the other hand, compressive sensing (CS) enables detection of spectrally sparse signals with low acquisition speed 7,8 .…”

Data compressed photonic time-stretch optical coherence tomography

“…High-throughput realtime OCT based on photonic time stretch (PTS) technique with MHz axial scan rate is an indispensable tool for investigating fast-changing and transient dynamics as it is immune to motion artifacts [1,2]. However, the main difficulty associated with PTS-OCT is that high-speed data acquisition up to tens of GS/s is always required to capture the temporal interferogram.…”

Optical coherence tomography – near infrared spectroscopy system and catheter for intravascular imaging

“…Intravascular optical coherence tomography (IVOCT) [1,2], implemented by frequencydomain OCT (FD-OCT) [2][3][4][5] or optical frequency domain imaging (OFDI) [6,7], provides three-dimensional microscopic images of blood vessels, including coronary arteries, in vivo [8,9]. The ability of IVOCT to capture arterial microstructural detail is potentially very useful in medicine because it enables coronary artery disease (CAD) treatment decisions to be made based on detailed morphologic information, which should result in better interventional outcomes [10][11][12].…”