title: Statistics of the depth-scan photocurrent in time-domain optical coherence tomography.
abstract: We derive the time-variant second-order statistics of the depth-scan photocurrent in time-domain optical coherence tomography (TD-OCT) systems using polarized thermal light sources and superluminescent diodes (SLDs). Since the asymptotic-joint-probability-distribution function (JPDF) of the photocurrent due to polarized thermal light is Gaussian and the signal-noise-ratio in TD-OCT is typically high (>80 dB), the JPDF of the depth-scan photocurrent could be approximated as a Gaussian random process that is completely determined by its second-order statistics. We analyze both direct and differential light detection schemes and include the effect of electronic thermal fluctuations. Our results are a necessary prerequisite for future development of statistical image processing techniques for TD-OCT.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Microstructural Sciences, National Research Council Canada, 1200 Montreal Road, Ottawa, K1A 0R6, Canada. Sherif.Sherif@nrc.ca
authors.forename: Sherif S
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Sherif
authors.forename: Carla C
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Rosa
authors.forename: Costel
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Flueraru
authors.forename: Shoude
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.forename: Youxin
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Mao
authors.forename: Adrian G
authors.initials: AG
authors.lastname: Podoleanu