title: Sensitivity enhancement in swept-source optical coherence tomography by parametric balanced detector and amplifier.
abstract: We proposed a sensitivity enhancement method of the interference-based signal detection approach and applied it on a swept-source optical coherence tomography (SS-OCT) system through all-fiber optical parametric amplifier (FOPA) and parametric balanced detector (BD). The parametric BD was realized by combining the signal and phase conjugated idler band that was newly-generated through FOPA, and specifically by superimposing these two bands at a photodetector. The sensitivity enhancement by FOPA and parametric BD in SS-OCT were demonstrated experimentally. The results show that SS-OCT with FOPA and SS-OCT with parametric BD can provide more than 9 dB and 12 dB sensitivity improvement, respectively, when compared with the conventional SS-OCT in a spectral bandwidth spanning over 76 nm. To further verify and elaborate their sensitivity enhancement, a bio-sample imaging experiment was conducted on loach eyes by conventional SS-OCT setup, SS-OCT with FOPA and parametric BD at different illumination power levels. All these results proved that using FOPA and parametric BD could improve the sensitivity significantly in SS-OCT systems.
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong, China.
authors.forename: Jiqiang
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kang
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: Bowen
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong, China.
authors.forename: Xie
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wang
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: Sisi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tan
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong, China.
authors.forename: Chandra
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Jinata
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong, China.
authors.forename: Kenneth K Y
authors.initials: KK
authors.lastname: Wong
keywords: (060.2350) Fiber optics imaging; (110.4500) Optical coherence tomography; (180.1655) Coherence tomography; (190.4410) Nonlinear optics, parametric processes