Experimental Demonstration of Spectral Intensity Optical Coherence Tomography

Abstract

We demonstrate experimentally spectral-domain intensity optical coherence tomography using a Mach-Zehnder interferometer with balanced detection. We show that the technique allows for a point spread function with reduced full-width at half maximum compared to conventional optical coherence tomography. The method further provides benefits similar to those of chirped-pulse interferometry in terms of dispersion cancellation but only requires a broadband incoherent source and standard detectors. The measurements are in excellent agreement with the theoretical predictions. Finally, we propose an approach that enables the elimination of potential artefacts arising from multiple interfaces.