title: Aberration characterization for the optimal design of high-resolution endoscopic optical coherence tomography catheters.
abstract: We study the major factors causing degradation in the lateral resolution of gradient-index-lens-based catheters used for high-resolution optical coherence tomography. Chromatic aberration and astigmatism were taken into account in the propagation of broadband single-mode Gaussian beams through the catheter geometry. It was found that, while chromatic aberration did not preclude achieving high resolution, astigmatism posed a major technical difficulty, because its correction requires a very sensitive adjustment of parameters, especially for catheters with long working distances.
authors.affiliation: 1Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA.
authors.forename: Wladimir A
authors.initials: WA
authors.lastname: Benalcazar
authors.forename: Woonggyu
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Jung
authors.forename: Stephen A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Boppart
mesh_terms: D057785:Catheters; D004724:Endoscopy / Q000295:instrumentation*; D004867:Equipment Design; D055620:Optical Phenomena; D041623:Tomography, Optical Coherence / Q000295:instrumentation*