We present spectral characteristics of the phase shifts in refractive index based phase-shifting interferometer. The conventional mechanical movement method cannot provide the same phase change for different wavelengths, which occurs phase information distortion in the incoherent interferometer. The refractive index-based phase-shifting method can adjust the uniform phase shift over a wide spectral window. Spectral phase-shifting errors of the proposed method were compared with those of the mechanical phase-shift method. The proposed method can be applied to eliminate unwanted phase-shifting errors and to obtain correct phase information of optical tomographic images.
We present a method for an intraoperative microscope-mounted Fourier-domain optical coherence tomography (FD-OCT) system to maintain high image contrast while dynamic adjusting focal planes. Because two imaging system with different imaging depth are integrated into one system, active control of OCT imaging conditions is indispensible for functioning high quality imaging modality. For the purpose of active adjustment of the focal plane, an electrically focus tunable lens (FTL) was used in the sample arm of the OCT system. Because the OCT image contrast at a depth is given by roll-off characteristics of the FD-OCT that is a function of difference in OPL between the sample and reference arm, we should compensate the difference in the OPL to enhance image contrast. We proposed the use of a piezoelectric actuator (PZT) attached to a reflection optic to actively control the OPL in the reference arm. With active controlling the FTL and PZT simultaneously, we can optimize and keep the OCT image contrast while maintaining image depth positions. From a surface position in the OCT image, the focal length variations with the FTL are calculated and the focal length of the FTL is tuned to match on the sample surface. Contrast optimization with the PZT is performed with compensating the optical path length difference from the additional focal length of the FTL. We integrated the OCT to a conventional surgical microscope and demonstrate feasible observation of OCT image with high contrast at constant imaging depth under the change of focal plane of the microscope.
We present a balanced detection method for spectral domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) using a fiberoptic phase shifter. SD-OCT systems typically use a single line scan camera to detect the spectrogram, and noninterfered signals are not excluded from the recorded signal. That limits dynamic range and reduces image quality. Balanced detection methods are used to overcome these problems in swept-source OCT system. Detection using two line scan cameras or multi line camera was proposed to perform the balanced detection in SD-OCT systems. Time delayed replica generated by long optical fiber have been made for that purpose. To induce a phase shift in interference signal, we used a phase shifting interferometry based on an optically tunable phase shifter. The proposed phase shifter can control refractive index variations using the optical power of the pumping beam incident on the rare-earth doped optical fiber. Phase shifts on the optical power represent non-linear behavior and require optimized tuning for proper phase shift. We measured the spectrogram and analyzed the phase change characteristics. By subtracting the phase-shifted replica from the original interference signal, the amplitude of the interference signal is doubled and sensitivity is improved. We prove balanced detection performance based on a phase shifting interferometer.
We proposed a cell-counting method using optical fiber interferometer and demonstrated the performance of the proposed method. The cell counting means the counting or the quantification of individual cells. Its application ranges from the biological research to practical disease diagnosis. As a conventional approach for cell counting, various methods are employed. Among them, flow cytometry is quite accurate and exact method but it uses bulk and expensive optical equipment. When image-based methods are exploited, the limited field of view obtained by microscope is considered for cell counting. From this reason, problem of time consuming for whole cell counting is to be solved. The proposed method utilized single-mode optical fiber and high-speed spectrometer. Light beam having broad spectral bandwidth over 100 nm at 850-nm central wavelength is irradiated to a flow channel through fiber from top to bottom. Different optical path length differences are made whether the cell is passing though the flow channel across the beam area or not. The difference of optical path lengths in the beam area due to the cell induces interference signal depending on optical thickness of the cell. By measuring a series of interferences, the number of cells can be analyzed. The proposed system can be implemented without any expensive and perform the cell counting in the absence of complex image analysis. Interferometer-based cell counting can be a good alternative to the reported cell-counting methods.
We demonstrate fiber-optic sensor applications to full-range complex optical coherence tomography (OCT). To extend imaging range in OCT, real value or interferogram measured from an interferometer is needed to convert into complex value. For the purpose, various treatments such as mechanical, electro-optical, optical and programming based methods have been exploited in the interferometer. To make complex signal in fiber-optic interferometer, we propose vibrationbased optical phase shifting method. The proposed method utilizes optical fiber sensors that are for the detection of vibration using optical fiber. When coiled fiber was exposed to vibration, interferogram presents fringe shift without periodicity variations, which means that vibration induces phase shift in the interferometer. Therefore, intentionally generated vibration could be applicable to controlling of the optical phase shift and retrieval of the complex signal. As a result, the vibrations applied to coiled fiber were able to remove mirror image in Fourier domain. This result proved the feasibility of the proposed method on the extending of optical imaging range.
Refractive index variation in rare-earth doped specialty fiber can be possible through resonantly enhanced optical nonlinearity with the assistance of an optical pumping. The quantity of the variation under low-power optical pumping is enough to induce phase shift of 2π. By using this nonlinear effect in the specialty fiber, optical imaging system can perform phase shift-based optical imaging without mechanically controlled phase stepping. The pump-induced refractive index from the specialty fiber in reference arm of interferometer can produce optical delay depending on applied optical pumping power. At low optical power under few hundred mW, optical delay corresponding to 2π can be yielded in the reference arm efficiently. Contrast to the conventional mechanical phase stepping method, optically actuated phase stepping with the specialty optical fiber can avoid drawback of mechanical hysteresis and requirement of high voltage controllable electronics. The feasibility of the proposed method on optical imaging is suggested with demonstrating full range imaging in optical coherence tomography. Extended imaging range under optical phase stepping was successfully presented. The proposed method could be applied for detailed control of phase shift-based interferometry.
We have presented full-field optical coherence tomography(FF-OCT) system implemented with fiber optics. Usually FFOCT
system illuminates large area at once while conventional OCT system irradiates light at single focal point. From
these reason, light guidance with single fiber waveguide is not proper in FF-OCT system and fiber-optic components is
not dealt in the system implementation. In this paper, we demonstrate FF-OCT system implemented with fiber-optics,
where fiber coupler and fiber-optic circulator were used to perform the function of beam splitting and optical delay line.
Each arm of fiber coupler acts as reference arm and sample arm. Fiber-optic collimator and metal-coated mirror mounted
on translator in the reference arm could adjust optical path length properly. Separated beam after the fiber coupler was
combined after bulk beam combiner, where beam size at fiber end is expanded by large fiber-optic collimator and then
illuminated to sample. The larger size beam reflected from sample was interfered with reference beam, which
experienced optical delay in the reference arm. The utilization of fiber-optic components could provide merits such as
easiness in optical alignment and reduction of sensitiveness to external vibration and perturbation.
KEYWORDS: Optical coherence tomography, Image processing, Data processing, Parallel computing, Data acquisition, Signal processing, Doppler tomography, Digital signal processing, Graphics processing units, Neodymium
We demonstrate a real-time display of processed OCT images using multi-thread parallel computing with
a quad-core CPU of a personal computer. The data of each A-line are treated as one vector to maximize
the data translation rate between the cores of the CPU and RAM stored image data. A display rate of 29.9
frames/sec for processed OCT data (4096 FFT-size x 500 A-scans) is achieved in our system using a
wavelength swept source with 52-kHz swept frequency. The data processing times of the OCT image and
a Doppler OCT image with a 4-time average are 23.8 msec and 91.4 msec.
We present a tomographic imaging system that is applied a continuous phase shifting interferometry scheme to digital
holographic microscopy (DHM). The proposed scheme achieves en-face tomographic image from digitally recorded
original hologram by 2-D sensor array. Although images obtained at out-of-focus position, the application of integrating
four bucket technique to digital hologram produces refocused en-face image with showing clear field of view. The
proposed technique has advantages such as reduced phase errors and faster acquisition speed when it compared with
conventional discrete phase stepping method. The performance of the system is demonstrated with presenting of the
images on a scratched mirror surface and of an USAF resolution target. The reconstructed images are compared with
conventional microscopic images, which reveal good aggrements. We believe that the proposed method enables
tomographic imaging of biological samples with providing reduced noise level and improved imaging speed.
We present the method measuring the thickness and the refractive index of a transparent specimen at a same time based on
full-field optical coherence tomography. As a sample a small drop of epoxy was placed on a flat plate and the high-resolution
depth resolved en-face images of the epoxy drop were taken. With adopting the plate surface as a reference plane,
the physical thickness and the refractive index distribution could be obtained. Owing to the full-field imaging capability, we
could obtain the transverse distributions of the thickness and the refractive index without any transverse scanning. The
measured thickness at the center of the sample was 24 μm and the average index was 1.4055 with the standard deviation of
0.0002.
We report an all-fiber system aided by double-clad fiber (DCF) and DCF devices for simultaneous measurements of
optical coherence tomography (OCT) and fluorescence spectroscopy (FS). The DCF together with DCF coupler and
single-body DCF lens helped in realizing a multifunctional single-unit probe for the OCT-FS system. The fiber lens
formed on the DCF aids in effective focusing and signal collection, while the DCF coupler collects the OCT signal from
the core and the fluorescence signal from the cladding of the DCF. The OCT image and fluorescence spectra of plant
tissues are simultaneously measured and presented to validate the performance.
We demonstrate the feasibility of OCT imaging for the investigation of samples, which are processed by the short pulse laser. The use of short pulse lasers in various material processing have provided the advantages such as a high peak power and a small heat affected zone over conventional methods based on mechanical treatment. However, due
to the improper application of the lasers, the unwanted surface or structural deformation of materials and the thermal damages around an irradiation spot can be caused. Thus, the real-time monitoring/evaluation of laser processing performance in-situ is needed to prevent the excessive deformation of the material and to determine optimal processing conditions. As a standard method to investigation of the material processing by using the lasers, the
scanning electron microscopy (SEM) or the transmission electron microscopy (TEM) observation of a physically cleaved surface is used although sample damages are given during the cleaving and polishing process. In this paper, we utilized the OCT advantages such as high resolution and non-invasive investigation to evaluate the laser processing performance. OCT images for the deformation monitoring of the ABS plastic present correlation with images obtained from conventional investigation methods. OCT images of the maxillary bone clearly show the difference in the pit formation of the biological sample at different irradiation conditions. We prove the potential of
OCT for the evaluation of laser-processed various samples. Integrating OCT system into a laser processing system, we can visualize the effect of laser-based treatments in clinical and industrial fields.
We demonstrate a novel implementation of spectral domain OCT by using a proposed sweeping detector at 1320 nm
wavelength range. A fiber pigtailed Fabry-Perot tunable filter is newly adapted to receive spectral interferometer
information using a photo-receiver instead of using charged couple detector arrays. In order to show a possibility of the
scheme in other view point, we have changed the position of the Fabry-Perot tunable filter of the interferometer. The
combination of a super luminescent LED and a semiconductor optical amplifier was used as an optical source. Its output
power is about 10 mW and the spectral bandwidth is about 60 nm. The filtered light after passing thorough the Fabry-
Perot tunable filter has 0.15 nm instantaneous spectral linewidth with 1.3 mW average output power. The system with an
axial resolution of 12 μm performed OCT imaging of a cornea of a rat eye proving potential about the application of the
proposed sweeping detector OCT.
A novel wavelength swept broadband source based on an ultrashort pulse laser and an external tunable filter was
proposed for application of frequency domain-optical coherence tomography (FD-OCT). The laser beam coupled into
the single mode fiber, which provided 0.5-nm instantaneous spectral linewidth with 1-mW average output power, was
tuned from 740 nm to 850 at a 1 kHz repetition rate. The system with an axial resolution of 5 &mgr;m performed OCT
imaging of air-gap between glass plates proving potential about the application of pulse laser source to FD-OCT
system. The proposed swept source scheme could be applied for the implementation of ultra-high resolution FD-OCT
system based on a supercontinuum source with an ultra-short pulse laser and a high nonlinear optical fiber.
We propose the envelope detection method that is based on Hilbert transform for image restoration in full-filed optical
coherence tomography (FF-OCT). The FF-OCT system presenting a high-axial resolution of 0.9 &mgr;m was implemented
with a Kohler illuminator based on Linnik interferometer configuration. A 250 W customized quartz tungsten halogen
lamp was used as a broadband light source and a CCD camera was used as a 2-dimentional detector array. The proposed
image restoration method for FF-OCT requires only single phase-shifting. By using both the original and the phase-shifted
images, we could remove the offset and the background signals from the interference fringe images. The desired
coherent envelope image was obtained by applying Hilbert transform. With the proposed image restoration method, we
demonstrate en-face imaging performance of the implemented FF-OCT system by presenting a tilted mirror surface, an
integrated circuit chip, and a piece of onion epithelium.
We employed OCT imaging technique to study the human teeth infected with the caries lesion in fit and fissure. A time domain OCT system using a rapid-scanning optical delay line enabled high speed imaging of extracted teeth. The OCT images presented the morphological feature and caries-involved area of the dental structure with a high resolution of ~14 μm. The OCT images could be utilized to diagnose the disease, while a signal along the axial direction could provide quantitative analysis of the disease based on the reflectivity differences in the specimen. We investigated the influence of caries in human teeth with several imaging tools such as light illuminating exam, digital intra-oral radiography and electron probe micro analyzer, which provided the distributions of chemical compositions, mainly calcium and phosphate in hard tissues. The biochemical changes acquired from EPMA and the morphological features acquired from OCT in the early stage of caries were compared and analyzed to present more objectively practical index for translating the degree of caries.
We have implemented an all-fiber optical delay line, which is composed of fiber optic components such as two linearly chirped fiber Bragg gratings, fiber optic coupler and circulator. The proposed all-fiber delay line possesses features of automatic dispersion compensation and amplified optical delay. Using the fundamental characteristics of chirped fiber Bragg gratings, the basic properties are derived to appreciate the principle of all-fiber delay line. We obtained the experimental results that reveals group delay cancellation and amplified optical delay. The non-invasive cross-sectional images of biological and transparent glass samples are acquired with the proposed all-fiber delay line, which validates the potential as an optical delay line and its feasibility for optical coherence tomography.
Optical coherence tomography (OCT) images transverse resolution mostly depends on the light source spectrum width. Unfortunately, most common sources providing the required power for decent OCT image have narrow spectrum, which generate a resolution loss. It is possible, assuming the OCT system is linear shift-invariant, to consider the consequence of this spectrum narrowness as a convolution. It becomes then possible to enhance this resolution through iterative deconvolution methods (IDM). However those methods have a drawback, as they usually significantly enhance speckle, which is another consequence of the source spectrum narrowness. To compensate this, we rely on preliminary speckle filtering; and especially the adaptative ones, which provide better final results. We first studied consequences of the most popular IDM on OCT images, and then the effect of preliminary adaptive speckle filtering by different methods.
Fiber-based high resolution OCT system was achieved using white-light source with a halogen lamp, which has advantages of wide spectrum, compact size and low cost. The axial resolution measured without using objective lens in the sample arm was about 2.5 mm. The thickness of a thin film (about 7 mm thick) was measured to evaluate the high resolution performance. The measured interferogram showed two well-distinguished peaks corresponding to two interfaces of the thin film. The implemented OCT system was composed of fiber-optic Michelson interferometer instead of that of conventional bulk optics. To adapt a white-light source to the fiber based OCT system and providing high resolution, a wideband single mode fiber with a large mode field diameter for high coupling efficiency, a wideband fiber coupler with flat coupling response, a cascaded detector scheme for broadband detection and dispersion control are required. Dispersion mismatch due to introducing an objective lens in the sample arm can be controlled effectively by employing a proper optical component in the reference arm. After dispersion control, resolution of about 3.5 mm was enhanced to about 2.5 mm, which is similar to the objective lens-free resolution, and wide sidelobes was also well suppressed.
We proposed a technique to improve OCT resolution using LPG and EDF. The proposed technique improves the resolution of OCT by resphaping the spectrum of ASE source into Gaussian-like form. The ASE source has a strong characteristic peak due to erbium that is used for doping material in EDF. To reduce the peak-induced artifact to OCT image that may degrade image quality and distort inner structure information, LPG is used as a strong ASE peak rejection filter and EDF does a function of absorber when pumping power is not applied. Both of them can do spectral tailoring function properly so that modified source shape and sidelobe suppression can be performed. With the LPG-assisted reshaping, we have enhanced the spatial resolution up to 5 times (approximately 200 μm resolution was reduced to about 40 μm). With EDF absorber, we can obtain reshaped ASE source hence resolution was enhanced from 25 μm to less than 20 μm). The spatial resolution can be further enhanced by using cascaded LPGs or control of EDF parameters such as doping material, doping concentration, and the length of used EDF.
A novel method for measuring the temperature-dependent chromatic dispersion of a fiber is proposed, which is based on the interference fringe formed by a pair of long-period fiber gratings (LPGs). The effective index difference between the fundamental core mode and a cladding mode was obtained from the interference fringe of the LPG pair. The order of the involved cladding mode and the core size could be obtained from the general parameters of the fiber; the numerical aperture and the cut-off wavelength. Using the obtained cladding mode order and the Sellmeier equation of silica material for the cladding index, the refractive index of the fiber core was obtained by comparing the measured effective index difference with the calculated one. Since the temperature-dependent Sellmeier equation of the cladding material is already known, the temperature-dependent refractive index of the core can be obtained. Measured refractive index of the core is fitted with a linear combination of the well-known Sellmeier equations of germanium and silica. The concentration of germanium is used as the fitting parameter. The calculated chromatic dispersion is well matched with the one measured with a conventional instrument within 0.2 ps/km/nm in a spectral range of from 1.3 mm to 1.6 mm at room temperature.
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