Physical compensation method for dispersion of multiple materials in swept source optical coherence tomography

Abstract

An ophthalmic swept source‐optical coherence tomography (SS‐OCT) system based on a high‐speed scanning laser at 1060 nm with a scanning rate of 100 KHz is constructed. Since the sample arm of the interferometer is comprised of multiple glass materials, the ensuing dispersion severely degrades imaging quality. In this article, second‐order dispersion simulation analysis for various materials was performed first, and dispersion equilibrium was implemented utilizing physical compensation methods. After dispersion compensation, an imaging depth in air of 4.013 mm was achieved in model eye experiments, and signal‐to‐noise ratio was enhanced by 11.6%, with a value of 53.8 dB. In vivo imaging of the human retina was performed to demonstrate structurally distinguishable retinal images, characterized by an axial resolution improvement of 19.8%, with a value of 7.7 μm close to the theoretical value of 7.5 μm. The proposed physical dispersion compensation method enhances imaging performance in SS‐OCT systems, enabling visualization of several low scattering mediums.