Optical coherence tomography based on a continuous-wave supercontinuum seeded by erbium-doped fiber's amplified spontaneous emission

Abstract

In this study, the use of a continuous-wave (CW) supercontinuum (SC) seeded by an erbium-doped fiber's amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) for optical-coherence tomography imaging is experimentally demonstrated. It was shown, by taking an in-depth image of a human tooth sample, that due to the smooth, flat spectrum and long-term stability of the proposed CW SC, it can be readily applied to the spectral-domain optical-coherence tomography system. The relative-intensity noise level and spectral bandwidth of the CW SC are also experimentally analyzed as a function of the ASE beam power.