Analyses and calculations of noise in optical coherence tomography systems

Significant progress has been made in the study of optical coherence tomography (OCT) - a non-invasive, high resolution, and in vivo diagnostic method for medical imaging applications. In this paper, the principles of noise analyses for OCT systems have been described. Comparisons are made of signal-to-noise ratios for both balanced and unbalanced detection schemes under the ideal no-stray light situation as well as the non-ideal situation where residual reflections and scatterings are presented. Numerical examples of noise calculation accompanied by detailed comparison of the main characteristics of both time-domain and frequency-domain OCT systems are also presented. It is shown that a larger dynamic range can be achieved for a Fourier-domain OCT system even under the circumstances of high-speed image acquisition. The main results presented in this paper should be useful for the development of high performance OCT systems.

[1]  A. Fercher,et al.  Optical coherence tomography - principles and applications , 2003 .

[2]  S. Yun,et al.  In vivo high-resolution video-rate spectral-domain optical coherence tomography of the human retina and optic nerve. , 2004, Optics express.

[3]  Kazumasa Takada,et al.  Noise in optical low-coherence reflectometry , 1998 .

[4]  J. Duker,et al.  Ultrahigh-resolution, high-speed, Fourier domain optical coherence tomography and methods for dispersion compensation. , 2004, Optics express.

[5]  M. V. van Gemert,et al.  Two-dimensional birefringence imaging in biological tissue using polarization-sensitive optical coherence tomography , 1997, European Conference on Biomedical Optics.

[6]  S. Yun,et al.  High-speed optical frequency-domain imaging. , 2003, Optics express.

[7]  B. Bouma,et al.  Improved signal-to-noise ratio in spectral-domain compared with time-domain optical coherence tomography. , 2003, Optics letters.

[8]  Masud Mansuripur,et al.  The Physical Principles of Magneto-optical Recording , 1995 .

[9]  J. Fujimoto,et al.  Optical Coherence Tomography , 1991 .

[10]  M. Wojtkowski,et al.  Real-time in vivo imaging by high-speed spectral optical coherence tomography. , 2003, Optics letters.

[11]  Zhongping Chen,et al.  Optical Doppler tomographic imaging of fluid flow velocity in highly scattering media. , 1997, Optics letters.

[12]  Jung-Taek Oh,et al.  Polarization-sensitive optical coherence tomography for photoelasticity testing of glass/epoxy composites. , 2003, Optics express.

[13]  J. Fujimoto,et al.  Buffered Fourier domain mode locking: Unidirectional swept laser sources for optical coherence tomography imaging at 370,000 lines/s. , 2006, Optics letters.

[14]  S. Yun,et al.  High-speed spectral-domain optical coherence tomography at 1.3 mum wavelength. , 2003, Optics express.

[15]  M. V. van Gemert,et al.  Noninvasive imaging of in vivo blood flow velocity using optical Doppler tomography. , 1997, Optics letters.

[16]  Changhuei Yang,et al.  Sensitivity advantage of swept source and Fourier domain optical coherence tomography. , 2003, Optics express.

[17]  J. Schmitt,et al.  Differential absorption imaging with optical coherence tomography , 1998 .

[18]  A. Podoleanu.  Unbalanced versus balanced operation in an optical coherence tomography system. , 2000, Applied optics.

[19]  A. Fercher,et al.  Performance of fourier domain vs. time domain optical coherence tomography. , 2003, Optics express.

[20]  Joseph M. Schmitt,et al.  Optical coherence tomography (OCT): a review , 1999 .

[21]  J. Schmitt,et al.  Speckle in optical coherence tomography. , 1999, Journal of biomedical optics.