Speckle reduction in optical coherence tomography by strain compounding.
We present a speckle reduction technique for optical coherence tomography based on strain compounding. Decorrelation is introduced between B-scans by altering the sample's strain. A theoretical description of the technique, based on a transfer-function formalism, and experimental results on silicone phantoms are presented. Nearly complete decorrelation between successive B-scan speckle patterns was observed for a variation in strain of 0.045. Strain compounding by averaging nine B-scans, with 0.003 strain increments between them, resulted in a 1.5-fold reduction in speckle contrast ratio.
Kennedy
Brendan F
BF
Optical+Biomedical Engineering Laboratory, School of Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering, The University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, Western Australia 6009, Australia. brendank@ee.uwa.edu.au
Hillman
Timothy R
TR
Curatolo
Andrea
A
Sampson
David D
DD
D019047:Phantoms, Imaging; D041623:Tomography, Optical Coherence / Q000379:methods*