En-face OCT system at 1060 nm

A highly efficient power optical coherence tomography configuration is implemented using a Multiwave Photonics broadband source centred at 1060 nm wavelength, FWHM = 50 nm and a Mach Zehnder interferometer. The interferometer contains a fibre acousto-optic modulator in each arm. One is driven at a fixed frequency of 40 MHz while the other via an RF Function Generation. In this way, the en-face OCT signal is modulated on a carrier frequency adjustable in the range 0 kHz to 1.5 MHz. A circulator is placed in the sample arm. Light retroreflected from the sample is sent via the circulator to a balanced coupler where it interferes with the reference beam. A translation stage is used in the reference arm to adjust the optical path difference in the interferometer. The result is photodetected using two InGaAs photodetectors followed by a differential amplifier in a balance detection configuration The system has been used to acquire en-face images as well as cross section optical coherence tomography images from skin and embryos based on T-scans (transversal reflectivity profiles).