Subcellular optical coherence tomography with a Kerr lens mode-locked Ti:Al2O3 laser

Wolfgang Drexler; Uwe Morgner; Constantinos Pitris; Stephen A. Boppart; Franz X. Kaertner; Xing De Li; Seong-Ho Cho; Erich P. Ippen; Mark E. Brezinski; James G. Fujimoto

doi:10.1117/12.347502

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30 April 1999 Subcellular optical coherence tomography with a Kerr lens mode-locked Ti:Al₂O₃ laser

Wolfgang Drexler, Uwe Morgner, Constantinos Pitris, Stephen A. Boppart, Franz X. Kaertner, Xing De Li, Seong-Ho Cho, Erich P. Ippen, Mark E. Brezinski, James G. Fujimoto

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Proceedings Volume 3598, Coherence Domain Optical Methods in Biomedical Science and Clinical Applications III; (1999) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.347502
Event: BiOS '99 International Biomedical Optics Symposium, 1999, San Jose, CA, United States

Abstract

The longitudinal resolution of optical coherence tomography (OCT) is currently limited by the optical bandwidth of the light source, typically a superluminescent diodes, to approximately 10-15 micrometers . This resolution is insufficient to identify individual cells or to assess subcellular structures such as nuclei or mitotic figures. The ability to perform subcellular imaging with OCT could greatly enhance the detection of early neoplastic changes and improve early cancer diagnosis or the imaging of developing biological morphology. Higher resolution OCT would also improve specificity of diagnosis for several ocular diseases, such as glaucoma, which require precise, detailed imaging and measurement of retinal nerve fiber layer thickness. State of the art Kerr-lens mode-locked Ti:Al₂O₃ lasers using double chirped dispersion compensating mirrors can generate pulse durations of < 7 fs and bandwidths of 200 nm or more at 800 nm center wavelength. These pulse durations and bandwidths can be used for OCT, resulting in longitudinal resolutions of less than 2 micrometers . The use of such broad bandwidths also enables the extraction of localized, wavelength dependent absorption and scattering tissue characteristic by detecting the full interferometric fringe signa and using Fourier signal processing. In this paper we demonstrate an ultra-high-subcellular level resolution, spectroscopic OCT system based on a mode-locked Ti:Al₂O₃ laser. In vivo imaging of development biology specimens as well as preliminary in vivo spectroscopic OCT result are demonstrated.

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Wolfgang Drexler, Uwe Morgner, Constantinos Pitris, Stephen A. Boppart, Franz X. Kaertner, Xing De Li, Seong-Ho Cho, Erich P. Ippen, Mark E. Brezinski, and James G. Fujimoto "Subcellular optical coherence tomography with a Kerr lens mode-locked Ti:Al₂O₃ laser", Proc. SPIE 3598, Coherence Domain Optical Methods in Biomedical Science and Clinical Applications III, (30 April 1999); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.347502

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