Title

Estimation Of Longitudinal Resolution In Optical Coherence Imaging

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. © 2002 Optical Society of America.

Publication Date

9-1-2002

Publication Title

Applied Optics

Volume

41

Issue

25

Number of Pages

5256-5262

Document Type

Article

Personal Identifier

scopus

DOI Link

https://doi.org/10.1364/AO.41.005256

Socpus ID

0036711943 (Scopus)

Source API URL

https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/0036711943

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