Intensity-interferometric spectral-domain optical coherence tomography with dispersion cancellation

Abstract

We describe a technique for cancelling group-velocity dispersion in spectral-domain (SD) optical coherence tomography (OCT) based on classical intensity correlations. As a classical analogue of quantum OCT, a Hong-Ou-Mandel interferometer is combined with a conventional SD-OCT setup, and correlations between different spectral intensities are calculated. It is shown theoretically that a simple computational procedure used in SD-OCT enables scanless cross-sectional imaging with both dispersion cancellation and a factor-of-√2 resolution enhancement. The method involves no ultrafast detectors and works with common light sources.

Phase difference enhancement with classical intensity interferometry

“…1 shows the original setup for phase difference enhancement based on classical intensity interferometry. It bears a strong resemblance to the recently proposed setup for quantum-mimetic OCT based on classical intensity interferometry [25,26]. The Contents lists available at ScienceDirect journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/optcom important differences are that a broadband source is replaced by a quasi-monochromatic one, that one-dimensional detectors are replaced by two-dimensional ones (i.e., conventional area scan cameras), and that two diffraction gratings located before the detectors are removed.…”

“…The optical setup to realize this method is, in general, constructed in such a way that two fields from an arbitrary twobeam interferometer are incident respectively on the two input Original setup for phase difference enhancement based on classical intensity interferometry. This setup is constructed by slightly altering the recently proposed setup for quantum-mimetic OCT based on classical intensity interferometry [25,26]. The sample is assumed to have a reflective surface to be tested.…”

“…It seems, however, that more recently the traditional form of intensity interferometry with classical light has received renewed attention in connection with stochastic electromagnetic fields [8][9][10][11][12] and, especially, in connection with classical counterparts of quantum imaging [13], namely, ghost imaging with classical light [14][15][16][17][18], ghost diffraction with classical light [19][20][21][22][23], and quantum-mimetic optical coherence tomography (OCT) [24][25][26].…”

“…In what follows we first show in Section 2 the original setup, inspired by the recently proposed quantum-mimetic OCT [25,26], for phase difference enhancement based on classical intensity interferometry and discuss its basic features. We then show in Section 3 that there are some variations in the setup to realize the method proposed in this study.…”

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

“…(5) can be obtained either experimentally or numerically from I n (ω 0 + ω ). The 'balanced detection' experimental configuration has been shown to suppress some of the artefacts in IC-SD-OCT 26,27 , i.e., some of the last 5 terms in Eq. (8).…”