Ultra-deep three-dimensional optical coherence tomography in turbid media

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

Abstract Ultra-deep three-dimensional (3D) optical coherence tomography (OCT) in turbid media is reported. Parallel detection along depth combined with scanning detection across lateral field is exploited in a swept-source OCT system to obtain the depth-resolved reflection matrices. Scanning detection enables the use of a highspeed swept source and a matched detector providing the required depth range for ultra-deep imaging. Disturbances intrinsic to scanning detection are compensated with negligible intra-frame phase variations to ensure satisfactory reconstruction by the inter-frame phase insensitive algorithm. 3D OCT imaging with an ultra-deep imaging depth of 11.5 times the scattering mean-free-path and a triple extension of the imaging depth achieved by a conventional SS-OCT is realized. The measurement time for 3D imaging (125μm×125μm×4mm ) is ~5 min, a significant leap over the time-domain matrix OCT where 6 min is taken for only one specified depth.