title: Molecular contrast in optical coherence tomography by use of a pump-probe technique.
abstract: We describe a novel technique for contrast enhancement in optical coherence tomography (OCT) that makes possible molecular-specific imaging for what is believed to be the first time. A pump-probe technique is employed in which a pulsed pump laser is tuned to ground-state absorption in a molecule of interest. The location of the target molecule population is derived from the resulting transient absorption of OCT sample-arm light acting as probe light. A signal processing technique for three-dimensional localization of the transient absorption signal is described, and preliminary results exhibiting OCT contrast from methylene blue dye in multilayer and scattering phantoms are presented.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina 27708, USA.
authors.forename: K Divakar
authors.initials: KD
authors.lastname: Rao
authors.forename: Michael A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Choma
authors.forename: Siavash
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Yazdanfar
authors.forename: Andrew M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Rollins
authors.forename: Joseph A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Izatt
mesh_terms: D003287:Contrast Media; D007834:Lasers; D008751:Methylene Blue; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D055095:Optics and Photonics; D014054:Tomography / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D003287:Contrast Media; D008751:Methylene Blue