title: Optical coherence tomography axial resolution improvement by step-frequency encoding.
abstract: A novel technique for axial resolution improvement of Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) systems is proposed. The technique is based on step-frequency encoding, using frequency shifting, of the OCT signal. A resolution improvement by a factor of approximately 7 is achieved without the need for a broader bandwidth light source. This method exploits a combination of two basic principles: the appearance of beating, when adding two signals of slightly different carrier frequencies, and the resolution improvement by deconvolution of the interferogram with an encoded autocorrelation function. In time domain OCT, step-frequency encoding can be implemented by performing two scans, with different carrier frequencies, and subsequently adding them to create the encoded signal. When the frequency steps are properly selected, deconvolution of the resulting interferogram, using appropriate kernels, results in a narrower resolution width.
authors.affiliation: KIOS Research Center for Intelligent Systems and Networks, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Cyprus, 1678 Nicosia, Cyprus.
authors.forename: Evgenia
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Bousi
authors.forename: Ismini
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Charalambous
authors.forename: Costas
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Pitris
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D044962:Data Compression / Q000379:methods*; D007089:Image Enhancement / Q000379:methods*; D007090:Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D041623:Tomography, Optical Coherence / Q000379:methods*