High-speed, high-sensitivity, gated surface profiling with closed-loop optical coherence topography.
We describe and experimentally demonstrate a novel (to our knowledge) surface profiling technique, for which we propose the term closed-loop optical coherence topography. This technique is a scanning beam, servo-locked variation of low-coherence interferometry. It allows for the sub-wavelength-resolution tracking of a weakly scattering macroscopic-scale surface, with the surface profile being directly output by the controlling electronics. The absence of significant real-time computational overhead makes the technique well suited to high-speed tracking. The use of a micrometer-scale coherence gate efficiently suppresses signals arising from structures not associated with the surface. These features make the technique particularly well suited to real-time surface profiling of in vivo, macroscopic biological surfaces.
Zvyagin
Andrei V
AV
The University of Western Australia, Optical + Biomedical Engineering Laboratory, Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Crawley, Australia. azvyagin@ee.uwa.edu.au
Eix
Ilos
I
Sampson
David D
DD
D000818:Animals; D006801:Humans; D007368:Interferometry / Q000379:methods*; D055095:Optics and Photonics; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013499:Surface Properties; D013997:Time Factors