Optics for forming a linear beam in optical coherence tomography

An optical coherence tomography comprising:

• a light source (l1) emitting light beam with a plurality of wavelengths l1, l2, . . . , ln;
• an optical linear beam forming system (20) forming linear light beam out of the light beam;
• an optical splitter (30) splitting the linear light beam coming from the optical linear beam forming system (20) into two light beams, with one light beam directed to a reference mirror (50) and another light beam directed to a subject;
• two first convex lenses (40), one located between the optical splitter (30) and the reference mirror (50) and another located between the optical splitter (30) and the subject, for collimating the light beams split by the optical splitter (30);
• a second convex lens (60), wherein light beams reflected from the reference mirror (50) and the subject are combined at the optical splitter (30) and the combined light beam is incident on the second convex lens (60);
• a camera (70) receiving the combined light beams coming from the second convex lens (60);
• an image processing board detecting signals corresponding to each pixel output by the camera (70);
• a Fourier transformation section for Fourier transforming the detected signals corresponding to the pixels in terms of the plurality of wavelengths l1, l2, . . . , ln to obtain depth-related image information (z-scanning);
• and
• a monitor displaying two dimensional image obtained by coupling the pixels along x axis, using the signals output at the Fourier transformation section,
• wherein the optical linear beam forming system (20) comprises a semicylinder lens (21), a convex lens (22) and a slit (23), and
• wherein the slit (23) is located between a short focal point and a long focal point of the convex lens (22), the direction of the slit (23) being parallel to the longitudinal direction of the semicylinder lens (21), resulting in the linear light beam.