Research on common path OCT system's light source and interferometer module

Abstract

Optical light source is one of the most important factors of the common path optical coherence tomography (CPOCT) system. Not only the bandwidth of the light source determines the axis resolution of the CPOCT, the central wavelength of the light source also determines the measurement depth of the bio-sample. Generally speaking, the most important issue of selecting the light source of CPOCT is the following three factors: near infrared light, high irradiation and low coherence. Furthermore, in order to get the CPOCT signal, the optical path difference (OPD) of the reference arm and the signal arm should equal to zero. Compared with the traditional OCT system, the reference arm and the signal arm of the common path interferometer module INT-COM-1300 are exactly symmetrical, which overcomes the disadvantage of the traditional OCT system's separation structure of the reference arm and the signal arm. Based on this compact common path structure, the influence of the outside environment such as vibration and temperature change is greatly decreased and the volume of the CPOCT system is reduced.