Optical probe and optical tomography apparatus

An elongated optical probe to be inserted into a tube which is open at a distal end portion of an insertion section of an endoscope, the probe comprising:

• a sheath constituting an outer circumferential surface of the optical probe;
• an optical fiber laid in an internal space of the sheath along a longitudinal direction thereof;
• a deflection scanning means disposed in the internal space of the sheath to deflect light outputted from the optical fiber, and rotatable around an axis line extending in the longitudinal direction to scan the deflected light in a circumferential direction of the axis line;
• a plurality of light transmission sections for transmitting the scanning light, each provided on a side wall of the sheath along the circumferential direction and each having an outer surface that is flat;
• wherein the inner shape of the sheath in cross-section which is perpendicular to the longitudinal direction and including the light transmission sections is a circle with respect to a point on the axis line.

An elongated optical probe to be inserted into a tube which is open at a distal end portion of an insertion section of an endoscope, the probe comprising:

• a sheath constituting an outer circumferential surface of the optical probe;
• an optical fiber laid in an internal space of the sheath along a longitudinal direction thereof;
• a deflection scanning means disposed in the internal space of the sheath to deflect light outputted from the optical fiber, and rotatable around an axis line extending in the longitudinal direction to scan the deflected light in a circumferential direction of the axis line;
• a plurality of light transmission sections for transmitting the scanning light, each provided on a side wall of the sheath along the circumferential direction and each having an outer surface that is flat;
• wherein the sheath comprises a first member having a cylindrical shape and a second member which is removably attachable to the first member and on which the plurality of light transmission sections is provided along the circumferential direction.

An elongated optical probe to be inserted into a tube which is open at a distal end portion of an insertion section of an endoscope, the probe comprising:

• a sheath constituting an outer circumferential surface of the optical probe;
• an optical fiber laid in an internal space of the sheath along a longitudinal direction thereof;
• a deflection scanning means disposed in the internal space of the sheath to deflect light outputted from the optical fiber, and rotatable around an axis line extending in the longitudinal direction to scan the deflected light in a circumferential direction of the axis line;
• and
• a plurality of light transmission sections provided on a side wall of the sheath along the circumferential direction to transmit the scanning light,
• wherein the outer shape of a cross-section of the sheath taken perpendicular to the longitudinal direction and including the light transmission sections is substantially a noncircular ellipse, and
• wherein the inner shape of the sheath in cross-section which is perpendicular to the longitudinal direction and including the light transmission sections is a circle with respect to a point on the axis line.

An elongated optical probe to be inserted into a tube which is open at a distal end portion of an insertion section of an endoscope, the probe comprising:

• a sheath constituting an outer circumferential surface of the optical probe;
• an optical fiber laid in an internal space of the sheath along a longitudinal direction thereof;
• a deflection scanning means disposed in the internal space of the sheath to deflect light outputted from the optical fiber, and rotatable around an axis line extending in the longitudinal direction to scan the deflected light in a circumferential direction of the axis line;
• and
• a plurality of light transmission sections provided on a side wall of the sheath along the circumferential direction to transmit the scanning light,
• wherein the outer shape of a cross-section of the sheath taken perpendicular to the longitudinal direction and including the light transmission sections is substantially a noncircular ellipse, and
• wherein the sheath comprises a first member having a cylindrical shape and a second member which is removably attachable to the first member and on which the plurality of light transmission sections is provided along the circumferential direction.

An optical tomography apparatus, comprising:

• a light source that emits light;
• a light splitting means that splits light emitted from the light source into measuring light and reference light;
• an irradiation optical system that irradiates the measuring light on a measuring object;
• a light combining means that combines reflection light from the measuring object when the measuring light is irradiated thereon with the reference light;
• an interference light detection means that detects interference light of the combined reflection and reference light;
• and
• an image obtaining means that detects an intensity of reflection light from each of a plurality of depth positions of the measuring object based on the frequency and intensity of the detected interference light, and obtains a tomography image of the measuring object based on the intensity of the reflection light from each of the depth positions,
• wherein the irradiation optical system includes an elongated optical probe to be inserted into a tube which is open at a distal end portion of an insertion section of an endoscope, the optical probe including:
• a sheath constituting an outer circumferential surface of the optical probe and having a cross section taken perpendicular to the longitudinal direction having a shape that is a triangle and having three side walls;
• an optical fiber laid in an internal space of the sheath along a longitudinal direction thereof;
• a deflection scanning means disposed in the internal space of the sheath to deflect light outputted from the optical fiber, and rotatable around an axis line extending in the longitudinal direction to scan the deflected light in a circumferential direction of the axis line;
• and
• a plurality of light transmission sections for transmitting the scanning light, each provided on one of the three side walls of the sheath along the circumferential direction and each having an outer surface that is flat.