Phase-referenced doppler optical coherence tomography
AssigneesCase Western Reserve University, University Hospitals of Cleveland
InventorsAndrew M. Rollins, Joseph A. Izatt, Volker Westphal, Cameron J. Pedersen, Siavash Yazdanfar
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A phase-referenced Doppler optical coherence tomography (OCT) system includes a low-coherence optical radiation source and a reference source co-propagated to a sample arm and a reference arm. The low-coherence and reference optical radiation reflected from the reference and arms is detected by a pair of detectors, yielding OCT and reference interferometric data output signals. The reference interferometric data output signal can be used to correct the OCT interferometric to yield velocity-indicating images that are free from defects due to sample motion and/or interferometer jitter.
Claims30
A Doppler optical coherence tomography (OCT) system comprising:
- a phase-referenced interferometer, said phase-referenced interferometer generating an OCT interferometric data output signal and a reference interferometric data output signal;
- a correction processor for correcting the OCT interferometric data output signal using the reference interferometric data output signal;
- and
- a data processing system, operatively coupled to the correction processor, said data processing system generating a velocity-indicating image using the corrected OCT interferometric data output signal.
A Doppler optical coherence tomography (OCT) system comprising:
- an interferometer including a low-coherence optical radiation source, a reference optical radiation source, a sample arm and a reference arm, the interferometer generating an OCT interferometric data output and a reference interferometric data output;
- a pair of detectors for generating the OCT interferometric data output indicative of incident low-coherence radiation and the reference interferometric data output indicative of incident reference radiation;
- and
- a data processing system, operatively connected to the pair of detectors, said data processing system correcting the detected OCT interferometric data output using the reference interferometric data output and generating a velocity-indicating OCT image using the corrected OCT interferometric data output.
A method for performing Doppler optical coherence tomography (OCT) imaging of a sample, said method comprising:
- producing low-coherence optical radiation;
- co-propagating continuous wave (CW) optical radiation with the low coherence optical radiation;
- directing at least some of the low-coherence and CW optical radiation to the sample and to an optical delay line (ODL);
- detecting the low coherence and CW optical radiation reflected back from the sample and the ODL;
- and
- correcting motion-induced defects in a velocity estimate corresponding to the detected low-coherence optical radiation using the detected CW optical radiation.
A method for correcting noise associated with at least one of (i) sample motion, and (ii) radiation path jitter in a non-invasive optical imaging system, said method comprising:
- providing a reference optical radiation source;
- propagating optical radiation from the reference source along the same optical radiation paths as a low-coherence optical radiation source;
- detecting the optical radiation from the reference source;
- and
- correcting signals indicative of detected low-coherence optical radiation with signals indicative of detected reference optical radiation.
A non-invasive optical imaging system comprising:
- a low-coherence optical radiation source;
- a reference optical radiation source;
- at least one optical path between the optical radiation sources and a sample;
- a pair of detectors for detecting radiation from (i) the low-coherence optical radiation source, and (ii) the reference optical radiation source after interaction with the sample;
- a correction processor for correcting signals indicative of detected low-coherence optical radiation using signals indicative of detected reference optical radiation.
A method for correcting noise associated with at least one of (i) sample motion and (ii) interferometer jitter in a Doppler optical coherence tomography (OCT) system, said method comprising:
- (a) coupling reference light into a fiber optic interferometer to co-propagate with OCT source light, thereby acquiring all Doppler shifts and phase noise in common with the OCT light;
- (b) detecting an OCT interferogram and a reference interferogram;
- and
- (c) using the reference interferogram to correct the OCT interferogram to provide a phase-noise free Doppler signal.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.