OCM with Engineered Wavefront

Abstract

The promise of optical coherence microscopy (OCM) is to combine the high sensitivity and imaging speed of optical coherence tomography with the high spatial resolution of confocal microscopy, thereby providing cellular and subcellular resolution compatible with in vivo measurements. Thanks to the coherent amplification, OCT approaches the shot-noise limit. The resulting outstanding sensitivity is needed for imaging thick scattering tissues, such as skin, at depths up to 2 mm, and providing high acquisition speeds necessary for imaging large fields of view. This substantiated the hope to develop a diagnostic tool to perform optical biopsy, by measuring tissue in situ and in vivo and thereby overcoming the randomness and invasiveness of conventional tissue biopsies and histopathology [1]. To meet this goal it is important to significantly enhance resolution power, as many pathological features indicative of disease manifest on a subcellular scale. An isotropic resolution of approximately 1 $μ$m would be highly desirable. Ideally without compromising the acquisition speed, the sensitivity, or the imaging depth.