Ultrahigh-resolution optical coherence tomography at 1.3 μm central wavelength by using a supercontinuum source pumped by noise-like pulses

Abstract

We report on the ultrahigh-resolution optical coherence tomography (OCT) with a novel high-power supercontinuum (SC) light source generated by noise-like pulses from an Yb-doped fiber laser. The SC spectrum is flat with a bandwidth of 420 nm centered around ∼1.3 μm. The light source is successfully employed in a time-domain OCT (TD-OCT), achieving an axial resolution of 2.3 μm. High resolution fiber-based spectral-domain OCT (SD-OCT) imaging of bio-tissue was also demonstrated.