Optical coherence tomography for imaging of subpleural alveolar structure using a Fourier domain mode locked laser

Research output: Contribution to book/Conference proceedings/Anthology/ReportConference contributionContributedpeer-review

Abstract

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a noninvasive imaging modality generating cross sectional and volumetric images of translucent samples. In Fourier domain OCT (FD OCT), the depth profile is calculated by a fast Fourier transformation of the interference spectrum, providing speed and SNR advantage and thus making FD OCT well suitable in biomedical applications. The interference spectrum can be acquired spectrally resolved in spectral domain OCT or time-resolved in optical frequency domain imaging (OFDI). Since OCT images still suffer from motion artifacts, especially under in vivo conditions, increased depth scan rates are required. Therefor, the principle of Fourier domain mode locking has been presented by R. Huber et al. circumventing the speed limitations of conventional FD OCT systems. In FDML lasers, a long single mode fiber is inserted in the ring resonator of the laser resulting in an optical round trip time of a few microseconds. Sweeping the wavelength synchronously by a tunable Fabry-Perot filter can provide wavelength sweeps with repetition rates up to a few MHz used for OFDI. Imaging of subpleural lung tissue for investigation of lung dynamics and its elastic properties is a further biomedical application demanding high-speed OCT imaging techniques. For the first time, the visualization of subpleural alveolar structures of a rabbit lung is presented by the use of an FDML-based OCT system enabling repetition rates of 49.5 kHz and 122.6 kHz, respectively.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationOptical Coherence Tomography and Coherence Techniques V
Publication statusPublished - 2011
Peer-reviewedYes

Publication series

SeriesProgress in Biomedical Optics and Imaging - Proceedings of SPIE
Volume8091
ISSN1605-7422

Conference

TitleOptical Coherence Tomography and Coherence Techniques V
Duration24 - 26 May 2011
CityMunich
CountryGermany

External IDs

Scopus 79960752508
ORCID /0000-0003-0554-2178/work/142249857
ORCID /0009-0008-7642-8608/work/142255319
ORCID /0000-0003-2292-5533/work/142256596

Keywords

Keywords

  • fourier domain mode locking, lung tissue, optical coherence tomography, optical frequency domain imaging, tunable laser