A New Technique for High-Resolution Frequency Domain Optical Coherence Tomography

Frequency domain optical coherence tomography (FDOCT) is a new technique that is well-suited for fast imaging of biological specimens, as well as non-biological objects. The measurements are in the frequency domain, and the objective is to retrieve an artifact-free spatial domain description of the specimen. In this paper, we develop a new technique for model-based retrieval of spatial domain data from the frequency domain data. We use a piecewise-constant model for the refractive index profile that is suitable for multi-layered specimens. We show that the estimation of the layered structure parameters can be mapped into a harmonic retrieval problem, which enables us to use high-resolution spectrum estimation techniques. The new technique that we propose is efficient and requires few measurements. We also analyze the effect of additive measurement noise on the algorithm performance. The experimental results show that the technique gives highly accurate parameter estimates. For example, at 25 dB signal-to-noise ratio, the mean square error in the position estimate is about 0.01 % of the actual value.