We demonstrate a sensitivity improvement in an optical frequency domain reflectometry-optical coherence tomography (OFDR-OCT) system with a discretely swept light source by incorporating a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) in a sample arm. With the system, we achieve a high sensitivity of -134.4 dB when we measure the reflective mirror with an A-line rate of 0.25 kHz. This improves the sensitivity (-125.2 dB) by 9.2 dB compared with a system without the SOA. The OCT system without the SOA shows a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of 56 dB when the signal light power is attenuated by about 66 dB, and the SNRs of less than 56 dB are obtained at higher attenuation levels. However, an SOA-incorporated OCT system provides the SNR of 56 dB at the much higher attenuation level of 86 dB. This means that using the SOA offers the large signal light power margin of 20 dB needed to obtain SNR of 56 dB. It is shown that the power margin is qualitatively dependent on the optical gain of the SOA. From an experimental analysis of the noises in the SOA-incorporated system, we found that the sensitivity enhancement is mainly limited by the beat noise between the reference light and the amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) of the SOA. We obtained images that show clear cluster structures of enamel crystals near the dentin-enamel junction of an extracted human tooth with our SOA-incorporated discretely swept OFDR-OCT imaging, revealing the potential to achieve a high-speed OCT system with high sensitivity.
We propose a new method to increase the sensitivity of Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) beyond the conventional
shot noise limit using optical amplifiers. Criterion for effective use of optical amplifiers for OCT is discussed.
Enhancement of OCT images is demonstrated with optical frequency domain reflectometry (OFDR) OCT.
We demonstrate dispersion compensation by using a dispersion shifted fiber (zero dispersion at a wavelength
of 1550 nm) in an optical-frequency domain imaging (OFDI) - optical coherence tomography (OCT) system
for tooth imaging. In the system, we use a tunable laser diode operating in the 1550 nm wavelength region
(1533-1573 nm) as a light source, because we can expect a smaller absorption coefficient for the enamel layer of
a tooth than with a 1300 nm light source. This simple and cost-effective method provides an axial resolution
of 27 &mgr;m in air, which is the theoretically expected value, although the value is 36 &mgr;m without compensation.
By measuring an extracted human tooth with compensation, we also confirm the realization of greatly improved
contrast at the boundary between the enamel and dentin layers. This compensation technique might prove even
more effective if we use a light source with a wider wavelength range.
We have been developing a unique discretely swept optical frequency domain imaging (OFDI) using superstructured-grating
distributed Bragg reflector (SSG-DBR) lasers. To increase resolution, four SSG-DBR lasers are being developed
to obtain spectral coverage of 160 nm in total. To increase speed of D-OFDI imaging, simultaneous scanning of multiple
sources with a parallel OFDI system and unique transversal scanning D-OFDI have been demonstrated. Introduction of
an optical amplifier can increase sensitivity beyond the conventional shot noise limit. A deep 12 mm depth range has
been demonstrated with the wavelength interval of 0.05 nm.
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