title: High-speed path-length scanning with a multiple-pass cavity delay line.
abstract: Techniques for high-speed delay scanning are important for low-coherence interferometry, optical coherence tomography, pump probe measurements, and other applications. We demonstrate a novel scanning delay line using a multiple-pass cavity. Differential delays are accumulated with each pass so that millimeter delays can be generated with tens of micrometer mirror displacements. With special design criteria, misalignment sensitivity can be dramatically reduced. The system is demonstrated to scan 6 m/s at 2-kHz repetition rates. Real-time optical coherence tomography imaging with 500 pixel images at four frames/s is performed. Using a Cr:forsterite laser source, we obtained axial image resolutions of 6 microm with 92-dB sensitivity.
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and the Research Laboratory of Electronics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Building 36-345,50 Vassar Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts 01239, USA.
authors.forename: Pei-Lin
authors.initials: PL
authors.lastname: Hsiung
authors.forename: Xingde
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Chudoba
authors.forename: Ingmar
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Hartl
authors.forename: Tony H
authors.initials: TH
authors.lastname: Ko
authors.forename: James G
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Fujimoto
mesh_terms: D008962:Models, Theoretical; D055095:Optics and Photonics