Apparatus and method for spectral domain optical imaging

An optical imaging apparatus comprising:

• an illumination system comprising an optical source for illuminating, with a multi-wavelength optical beam, a volume of an object, said volume to be imaged in three spatial dimensions, said volume having an elongated lateral cross-sectional area with a short axis, a long axis and an aspect ratio defined by the ratio of the long axis to the short axis;
• an optical system for capturing and anisotropically transforming light scattered or reflected from the illuminated volume;
• one or more beam splitters for splitting light emitted from said optical source into a reference beam and said multi-wavelength optical beam, and for combining said reference beam with the captured light;
• a spatial sampling element for sampling the anisotropically transformed captured light in a first dimension;
• and
• a measurement system comprising a two-dimensional sensor array for simultaneous capture of phase and amplitude information over a range of wavelengths of the captured light sampled by said spatial sampling element.

A method for optical imaging, said method comprising the steps of:

• illuminating, with a multi-wavelength optical beam, a volume of an object, said volume to be imaged in three spatial dimensions, said volume having an elongated lateral cross-sectional area with a short axis, a long axis and an aspect ratio defined by the ratio of the long axis to the short axis;
• capturing and anisotropically transforming light scattered or reflected from the illuminated volume;
• splitting light emitted from an optical source into a reference beam and said multi-wavelength optical beam;
• combining said reference beam with the captured light;
• sampling the anisotropically transformed captured light in a first dimension;
• and
• simultaneously capturing, with a measurement system comprising a two-dimensional sensor array, phase and amplitude information over a range of wavelengths of the sampled anisotropically transformed captured light.