title: Femtosecond laser micro-inscription of optical coherence tomography resolution test artifacts.
abstract: Optical coherence tomography (OCT) systems are becoming more commonly used in biomedical imaging and, to enable continued uptake, a reliable method of characterizing their performance and validating their operation is required. This paper outlines the use of femtosecond laser subsurface micro-inscription techniques to fabricate an OCT test artifact for validating the resolution performance of a commercial OCT system. The key advantage of this approach is that by utilizing the nonlinear absorption a three dimensional grid of highly localized point and line defects can be written in clear fused silica substrates.
authors.forename: Peter H
authors.initials: PH
authors.lastname: Tomlins
authors.forename: Graham N
authors.initials: GN
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.forename: Peter D
authors.initials: PD
authors.lastname: Woolliams
authors.forename: Janarthanan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Rasakanthan
authors.forename: Kate
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Sugden