Electronically controlled coherent linear optical sampling for optical coherence tomography.
Electronically controlled coherent linear optical sampling for low coherence interferometry (LCI) and optical coherence tomography (OCT) is demonstrated, using two turn-key commercial mode-locked fiber lasers with synchronized repetition rates. This novel technique prevents repetition rate limitations present in previous implementations based on asynchronous optical sampling. Adjustable scanning ranges and scanning rates are realized within an interferometric setup by full electronic control of the mutual time delay of the two laser pulse trains. We implement this novel linear optical sampling scheme with broad spectral bandwidths for LCI, optical filter characterization and OCT imaging in two and three dimensions.
Kray
Stefan
S
Institute of Semiconductor Electronics, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany. kray@iht.rwth-aachen.de
Spöler
Felix
F
Hellerer
Thomas
T
Kurz
Heinrich
H
D000669:Amplifiers, Electronic; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D005336:Fiber Optic Technology / Q000295:instrumentation*; D007089:Image Enhancement / Q000295:instrumentation*; D007834:Lasers; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D018401:Sample Size; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000295:instrumentation*; D041623:Tomography, Optical Coherence / Q000295:instrumentation*; D014159:Transducers