Line-field spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (LF-SD-OCT) offers high-speed parallel imaging, but lateral beam expansion limits the photon budget per spatial channel, compromising sensitivity. Here, we demonstrate a high-speed LF-SD-OCT system driven by a gain-managed nonlinear (GMN) all-fiber source operating at a central wavelength of 1063.2 nm. Delivering 269 mW of average power with a smooth 98 nm (3 dB) bandwidth, the GMN source effectively fulfills the stringent photon budget and stability requirements of parallel detection. The system achieves a 5.68 μm axial resolution and a ~1.2 mm effective imaging range. Ex vivo porcine myocardial tissue ablation experiments validate its capability for high-contrast cross-sectional visualization of ablation crater morphology, showing excellent agreement with optical microscopy. These results establish GMN-enabled LF-SD-OCT as a robust solution for the precise intraoperative monitoring of laser-induced tissue damage.
Liu et al. (Fri,) studied this question.