title: Temporal coherence and time-frequency distributions in spectroscopic optical coherence tomography.
abstract: Traditional analysis of spectroscopic optical coherence tomography (SOCT) signals is limited by an uncertainty relationship between time (depth) and frequency (wavelength). The use of a bilinear time-frequency distribution for analysis, such as those that compose Cohen's class of functions, may provide a way to avoid this limitation. Here we present the relationship between traditional SOCT analysis and the relevant Cohen class functions: the Wigner and Choi-Williams distributions. While cross terms that arise in these bilinear time-frequency distributions have been viewed as an artifact, here we identify these terms with temporal coherence, which contains significant information about the signal through phase relationships. The utility of time-frequency distributions is illustrated through analysis of calculated signals.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering and the Fitzpatrick Institute for Photonics, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina 27708, USA.
authors.forename: Robert N
authors.initials: RN
authors.lastname: Graf
authors.forename: Adam
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Wax
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D013057:Spectrum Analysis / Q000379:methods*; D013997:Time Factors; D041623:Tomography, Optical Coherence / Q000379:methods*