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Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE

Optical coherence tomography with phase-sensitive light

Baris I. Erkmen, Jeffrey H. Shapiro

Published Aug 31, 2006• 4 citations
Publisher

Abstract

A new configuration for optical coherence tomography is proposed that utilizes a phase-conjugate amplifier in conjunction with a Michelson interferometer to detect interference between two classical light fields with a non-zero phase-sensitive cross correlation. This imaging configuration - which we call phase-conjugate optical coherence tomography (PC-OCT) - shares the same factor-of-two axial resolution improvement and cancellation of even-order dispersion terms that are the key features of quantum optical coherence tomography, but without the necessity for non-classical signal and reference beams. Under appropriate conditions, PC-OCT can achieve a signal-to-noise ratio that is comparable to that of conventional optical coherence tomography.

DOI
10.1117/12.679565

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A new configuration for optical coherence tomography is proposed that utilizes a phase-conjugate amplifier in conjunction with a Michelson interferometer to detect interference between two classical light fields with a non-zero phase-sensitive cross correlation. This imaging configuration - which we call phase-conjugate optical coherence tomography (PC-OCT) - shares the same factor-of-two axial resolution improvement and cancellation of even-order dispersion terms that are the key features of quantum optical coherence tomography, but without the necessity for non-classical signal and reference beams. Under appropriate conditions, PC-OCT can achieve a signal-to-noise ratio that is comparable to that of conventional optical coherence tomography.
Quantum optical coherence tomography (Q-OCT) offers a factor-of-2 improvement in axial resolution and the advantage of even-order dispersion cancellation when it is compared to conventional OCT (C-OCT). These features have been ascribed to the nonclassical nature of the biphoton state employed in the former, as opposed to the classical state used in the latter. Phase-conjugate OCT (PC-OCT) shows that nonclassical light is not necessary to reap Q-OCT's advantages. PC-OCT uses classical-state signal and reference beams, which have a phase-sensitive cross correlation, together with phase conjugation to achieve the axial resolution and even-order dispersion cancellation of Q-OCT with a signal-to-noise ratio that can be comparable to that of C-OCT.
We demonstrate phase-conjugate optical coherence tomography (PC-OCT) using a classical source of phase-sensitive cross-correlated beams to achieve measurement improvements shared by quantum OCT (Q-OCT): a factor-of-2 enhancement in axial resolution and even-order dispersion cancellation. Compared with coincidence counting used in Q-OCT, PC-OCT employs standard photodetection that results in much faster data acquisitions. This work belongs to a new class of classical techniques inspired by quantum methods that have advantages once thought to be exclusively quantum mechanical.
Quantum optical coherence tomography (QOCT) offers a simple way to cancel dispersion broadening in a sample while also providing twice the resolution compared to classical OCT. However, to achieve these advantages, a bright and broadband source of entangled photon pairs is required. A simple implementation uses collinear spontaneous parametric down-conversion in a Michelson interferometer (MI), yet this autocorrelation scheme suffers from parasitic terms and sensitivity to phase noise. Here, we introduce a cross-correlation MI-based QOCT that overcomes these drawbacks, significantly advancing QOCT toward practical applications.
Quantum-optical coherence tomography (Q-OCT) is an interferometric technique for axial imaging offering several advantages over conventional methods. Chirped-pulse interferometry (CPI) was recently demonstrated to exhibit all of the benefits of the quantum interferometer upon which Q-OCT is based. Here we use CPI to measure axial interferograms to profile a sample accruing the important benefits of Q-OCT, including automatic dispersion cancellation, but with 10 million times higher signal. Our technique solves the artifact problem in Q-OCT and highlights the power of classical correlation in optical imaging.