Fluorescence coherence tomography.
In this paper, we introduce a new form of cross-sectional, coherence-gated fluorescence imaging, which we term 'spectral-domain fluorescence coherence tomography' (SD-FCT). SD-FCT is accomplished by spectrally detecting self-interference of the spontaneous emission of fluorophores located along the axial (depth) dimension of the sample. We have built a first generation SD-FCT system that utilizes two opposing low numerical-aperture objective lenses in an interferometer and an imaging spectrometer for detecting self-interference of fluorescence emitted from a sample. Here, in proof-of-principle experiments we demonstrate cross-sectional profiling of layered fluorescence phantoms. Narrow (a few micrometers FWHM) axial point-spread functions, large ranging depths (a few hundreds of micrometers) and wide fields of view (>1 mm) were measured. Initial results suggest that SD-FCT may be a viable tool for the investigation of semi-transparent and selectively labeled fluorescent samples.
Bilenca
A
A
Harvard Medical School and Wellman Center for Photomedicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, 50 Blossom Street, BAR 7, Boston, Massachusetts 02114, USA. abilenca@partners.org
Ozcan
A
A
Bouma
B
B
Tearney
G
G
D004867:Equipment Design; D005453:Fluorescence; D005583:Fourier Analysis; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D007368:Interferometry / Q000379:methods*; D013050:Spectrometry, Fluorescence / Q000295:instrumentation*