Crosstalk-free volumetric in vivo imaging of a human retina with Fourier-domain full-field optical coherence tomography

Fourier-domain full-field optical coherence tomography (FD-FF-OCT) is currently the fastest volumetric imaging technique that is able to generate a single 3-D volume of retina in less than 9 ms, corresponding to a voxel rate of 7.8 GHz. FD-FF-OCT is based on a fast camera, a rapidly tunable laser source, and Fourier-domain signal detection. However, crosstalk appearing due to multiply scattered light corrupts images with the speckle pattern, and therefore, lowers image quality. Here, for the first time, we report on a system that can acquire essentially crosstalk-free volumes of the retina by using a fast deformable membrane. It enables the visualization of choroids and a clear delineation of the retinal layers that is not possible with conventional FD-FF-OCT.