Molecular contrast in optical coherence tomography by use of a pump-probe technique.
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.
Rao
K Divakar
KD
Department of Biomedical Engineering, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina 27708, USA.
Choma
Michael A
MA
Yazdanfar
Siavash
S
Rollins
Andrew M
AM
Izatt
Joseph A
JA
D003287:Contrast Media; D007834:Lasers; D008751:Methylene Blue; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D055095:Optics and Photonics; D014054:Tomography / Q000379:methods*
D003287:Contrast Media; D008751:Methylene Blue