Novel Method for Optical Coherence Tomography Resolution Enhancement

A novel method for optical coherence tomography (OCT) resolution enhancement is presented. A simple mathematical analysis is given where, as a final result, the high-resolution image of an object axial structure is obtained. The object axial structure has been found to be proportional to the inverse Fourier transform of the ratio of two optical power spectra, i.e., the “high-frequency” part of the channeled spectrum at the interferometer output and the white-light source spectrum, respectively. An experimental setup, based on a very simple fiber-optic interferometric sensing unit, has been built in order to verify the result of the given mathematical model. Compared to the standard Fourier domain OCT, a sevenfold enhancement of the axial resolution is obtained. By using inexpensive and commercially available equipment, the resolution of about 1.3 μm is obtained.