Spatio-Temporal Optical Coherence Imaging – a new tool for in vivo microscopy

Abstract

Optical Coherence Imaging (OCI) including Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) and Optical Coherence Microscopy (OCM) uses interferometric detection to generate high-resolution volumetric images of the sample at high speeds. Such capabilities are significant for in vivo imaging, including ophthalmology, brain, intravascular imaging, as well as endoscopic examination. Instrumentation and software development allowed to create many clinical instruments. Nevertheless, most of OCI setups scan the incident light laterally. Hence, OCI can be further extended by wide-field illumination and detection. This approach, however, is very susceptible to the so-called crosstalk-generated noise. Here, we describe our novel approach to overcome this issue with spatio-temporal optical coherence manipulation (STOC), which employs spatial phase modulation of the incident light. Full Text: PDF ReferencesL. Wang, P. P. Ho, C. Liu, G. Zhang, and R. R. Alfano, "Ballistic 2-D Imaging Through Scattering Walls Using an Ultrafast Optical Kerr Gate", Science 253, 769-771 (1991). CrossRef D. Huang, E. A. Swanson, C. P. Lin, J. S. Schuman, W. G. Stinson, W. Chang, M. R. Hee, T. Flotte, K. Gregory, C. A. Puliafito, and et al., "Optical coherence tomography", Science 254, 1178-1181 (1991). CrossRef J. A. Izatt, E. A. Swanson, J. G. Fujimoto, M. R. Hee, and G. M. Owen, "Optical coherence microscopy in scattering media", Opt. Lett. 19, 590-592 (1994). CrossRef D. Borycki, M. Nowakowski, and M. Wojtkowski, "Control of the optical field coherence by spatiotemporal light modulation", Opt. Lett. 38, 4817-4820 (2013). CrossRef D. Borycki, M. Hamkalo, M. Nowakowski, M. Szkulmowski, and M. Wojtkowski, "Spatiotemporal optical coherence (STOC) manipulation suppresses coherent cross-talk in full-field swept-source optical coherence tomography", Biomed. Opt. Express 10, 2032-2054 (2019). CrossRef P. Stremplewski, E. Auksorius, P. Wnuk, L. Kozon, P. Garstecki, and M. Wojtkowski, "In vivo volumetric imaging by crosstalk-free full-field OCT", Optica 6, 608-617 (2019). CrossRef L. Vabre, A. Dubois, and A. C. Boccara, "Thermal-light full-field optical coherence tomography", Opt. Lett. 27, 530-532 (2002). CrossRef M. Laubscher, M. Ducros, B. Karamata, T. Lasser, and R. Salathé, "Video-rate three-dimensional optical coherence tomography", Opt. Express 10, 429-435 (2002). CrossRef Dubois and A. C. Boccara, Full-Field Optical Coherence Tomography, (Springer Berlin Heidelberg, Berlin, Heidelberg, 2008), pp. 565-591. CrossRef O. Thouvenin, K. Grieve, P. Xiao, C. Apelian, and A. C. Boccara, "En face coherence microscopy [Invited]", Biomedical Opt. Express 8, 622-639 (2017). CrossRef F. Fercher, C. K. Hitzenberger, M. Sticker, E. Moreno-Barriuso, R. Leitgeb, W. Drexler, and H. Sattmann, "A thermal light source technique for optical coherence tomography", Optics Commun. 185, 57-64 (2000). CrossRef R. A. Leitgeb, "En face optical coherence tomography: a technology review [Invited]", Biomed Opt Express 10, 2177-2201 (2019). CrossRef J. Fujimoto and W. Drexler, Introduction to Optical Coherence Tomography, (Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, 2008), pp. 1-45. CrossRef J. A. Izatt, M. A. Choma, and A.-H. Dhalla, Theory of Optical Coherence Tomography, (Springer International Publishing, Cham, 2015), pp. 65-94. CrossRef

Computational aberration correction in spatiotemporal optical coherence (STOC) imaging

“…In this contribution, we show that crosstalk free FD-FF-OCT can be described with the same formalism that we previously used for STOC with the only difference that we use the coherent instead of incoherent averaging [11]. Moreover, we show that such an approach makes it possible to explain the behavior of a stable phase within imaging depth, which in turn allows using the algorithms for digital correction of optical aberrations [16].…”

“…Recently, we developed the novel approach to suppress the coherent crosstalk in FD-FF-OCT, which we call spatiotemporal optical coherence (STOC) manipulation [11,12]. In STOC, we modulate the phase of light incident on the sample in time with a set of phase patterns generated by the spatial phase modulator (SPM).…”

Multi-focus averaging for multiple scattering suppression in optical coherence tomography

“…Techniques for further reducing the MS effect have been explored. One approach is modulating the probing light to decorrelate the MS signals using wavefront manipulation devices, such as a spatial light modulator (SLM) [ 11 , 12 ] or a deformable mirror [ 13 ]. However, this approach may result in high system complexity and cost.…”

Spatio-temporal optical coherence tomography provides full thickness imaging of the chorioretinal complex

“…We have recently demonstrated efficient crosstalk suppression in FD-FF-OCT that also features a long axial imaging range by using effective spatial phase randomization tools, such as a fast deformable membrane, and a long multimode optical fiber. 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 Each of these tools enables control of the spatial coherence of the light to effectively eliminate cross-talk; and, with the condition of underfilling illumination pupils in both interferometric arms, they can make imaging with high DOF possible while maintaining high lateral resolution ( Figure 1 B). We call the new method spatio-temporal optical coherence tomography (STOC-T) to emphasize that the complex spatiotemporal light field (a combination of spatial and temporal coherence of light) defines its performance.…”