Estimation of longitudinal resolution in optical coherence imaging

    Authors

    C. Akcay; P. Parrein;J. P. Rolland

    Comments

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    Abbreviated Journal Title

    Appl. Optics

    Keywords

    TOMOGRAPHY; TISSUES; Optics

    Abstract

    The spectral shape of a source is of prime importance in optical coherence imaging because it determines several aspects of image quality, especially longitudinal resolution. Wide spectral bandwidth, which provides short coherence length, is sought to obtain high-resolution imaging. To estimate longitudinal resolution, the spectral shape of a source is usually assumed to be Gaussian, although the spectra of real sources are typically non-Gaussian. We discuss the limit of this assumption regarding the estimation of longitudinal resolution. To this end, we also investigate how coherence length is related to longitudinal resolution through the evaluation of different definitions of the coherence length. To demonstrate our purpose, the coherence length for several theoretical and real spectral shapes of sources having the same spectral bandwidth and central wavelength is computed. The reliability of coherence length computations toward the estimation of longitudinal resolution is discussed. (C) 2002 Optical Society of America.

    Journal Title

    Applied Optics

    Volume

    41

    Issue/Number

    25

    Publication Date

    1-1-2002

    Document Type

    Article

    Language

    English

    First Page

    5256

    Last Page

    5262

    WOS Identifier

    WOS:000177698800008

    ISSN

    1559-128X

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