title: High-performance multi-megahertz optical coherence tomography based on amplified optical time-stretch.
abstract: As the key prerequisite of high-speed volumetric structural and functional tissue imaging in real-time, scaling the A-scan rate beyond MHz has been one of the major pursuits in the development of optical coherence tomography (OCT). Along with a handful of techniques enabling multi-MHz, amplified optical time-stretch OCT (AOT-OCT) has recently been demonstrated as a viable alternative for ultrafast swept-source OCT well above MHz without the need for the mechanical wavelength-tuning mechanism. In this paper, we report a new generation of AOT-OCT demonstrating superior performance to its older generation and all other time-stretch-based OCT modalities in terms of shot-to-shot stability, sensitivity (~90dB), roll-off performance (>4 mm/dB) and A-scan rate (11.5 MHz). Such performance is mainly attributed to the combined contribution from the stable operation of the broadband and compact mode-locked fiber laser as well as the optical amplification in-line with the time-stretch process. The system allows us, for the first time, to deliver volumetric time-stretch-based OCT of biological tissues with the single-shot A-scan rate beyond 10 MHz. Comparing with the existing high-speed OCT systems, the inertia-free AOT-OCT shows promises to realize high-performance 3D OCT imaging at video rate.
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong, China.
authors.forename: Jingjiang
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong, China.
authors.forename: Xiaoming
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wei
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong, China.
authors.forename: Luoqin
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong, China.
authors.forename: Chi
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong, China.
authors.forename: Jianbing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong, China.
authors.forename: K K Y
authors.initials: KK
authors.lastname: Wong
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong, China.
authors.forename: Kevin K
authors.initials: KK
authors.lastname: Tsia
keywords: (110.4500) Optical coherence tomography; (120.3180) Interferometry; (170.3880) Medical and biological imaging