Improved Detection Sensitivity of Line-Scanning Optical Coherence Microscopy

Optical coherence microscopy (OCM) is a promising technology for high-resolution cellular-level imaging in human tissues. Line-scanning OCM is a new form of OCM that utilizes line-field illumination for parallel detection. In this study, we demonstrate improved detection sensitivity by using an achromatic design for line-field generation. This system operates at 830-nm wavelength with 82-nm bandwidth. The measured axial resolution is 3.9 μm in air (corresponding to ~2.9 μm in tissue), and the transverse resolutions are 2.1 μm along the line-field illumination direction and 1.7 μm perpendicular to line illumination direction. The measured sensitivity is 98 dB with 25 line averages, resulting in an imaging speed of ~2 frames/s (516 lines/s). Real-time, cellular-level imaging of scattering tissues is demonstrated using human-colon specimens.