Hindawi Publishing Corporation
International Journal of Optics
Volume 2012, Article ID 565823, 6 pages
doi:10.1155/2012/565823
Research Article
Dual-Source Swept-Source Optical Coherence Tomography
Reconstructed on Integrated Spectrum
Shoude Chang, Youxin Mao, and Costel Flueraru
Institute for Microstructural Sciences, National Research Council Canada, 1200 Montreal Rd, Ottawa, ON, Canada K1A 0R6
Correspondence should be addressed to Shoude Chang, Shoude.chang@nrc.ca
Received 26 July 2011; Accepted 9 August 2011
Academic Editor: Nanguang Chen
Copyright © 2012 Shoude Chang et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License,
which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Dual-source swept-source optical coherence tomography (DS-SSOCT) has two individual sources with different central wave-
lengths, linewidth, and bandwidths. Because of the difference between the two sources, the individually reconstructed tomograms
from each source have different aspect ratio, which makes the comparison and integration difficult. We report a method to merge
two sets of DS-SSOCT raw data in a common spectrum, on which both data have the same spectrum density and a correct
separation. The reconstructed tomographic image can seamlessly integrate the two bands of OCT data together. The final image
has higher axial resolution and richer spectroscopic information than any of the individually reconstructed tomography image.
Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a powerful imaging
technology for producing high-resolution cross-sectional
images of the internal microstructure of materials and/or
biological samples. It has been widely used in medical
imaging and biological testing for more than ten years [1–4].
Swept-source optical coherence tomography (SS-OCT) [5, 6]
has significant signal-to-noise ratio and speed advantages
over time-domain OCT [7–9], in which, the broadband
laser swept source plays an important role. The linewidth
and output power of the source determinate the imaging
depth and sensitivity of an SS-OCT system. The bandwidth
of the light source determine the imaging axial resolution.
At current stage, most commercial available swept sources
have a bandwidth about 100 nm corresponding to an axial
resolution around 7.4 μm in air.
In some medical applications, when spectral feature
appears at a wavelength differing from the central wavelength
of the light source or the photo sensor, it could not be
investigated by the single-band OCT system. In order to
extract more spectral information and enhance the axial
resolution, simultaneously imaging at two distinct spectral
regions has been demonstrated by time-domain [10], full-
field [11], and spectral-domain [12, 13] OCT systems.
Actually, in all the reported dual-band OCT systems, the two
sets of band data are produced from the same light source. In
time-domain OCT, as the depth information is obtained by
means of depth scanning, both the reconstructed images of
different bands have the same image dimensions. An effective
and practical method for resolution enhancement in dual-
beam time-domain OCT had been reported by Baumgartner
et al. [14]. For the spectral-domain OCT, as two bands data
produced by the same source, the imaging ranges also have
the same depth range, if the spectrum data densities of those
two bands (associated with linear CCD array, grating device)
are the same.
In SS-OCT, the swept source stimulates the OCT system
by a series of wavelengths in a time sequence; a photo
detector then collects all the responses as Fourier series com-
ponents of the testing sample. Because the detector is only
sensitive to optical power, it loses the phase information in
the reflected/back scattered signal. At any moment, the signal
detected by sensor can be written as
I (k
i
) ≈ [E
0
(k
i
)+ H (k
i
)E
0
(k
i
)]
× [E
0
(k
i
)+ H (k
i
)E
0
(k
i
)]
∗
, i = 1, 2, 3, 4, ... , N ,
(1)
where E
0
(k
i
) is the electrical field with i
th
wavenumber
sent from the source, H(k
i
) represents the sample transfer
function, and I(k
i
) is the signal generated by the sensor.
[]
∗
indicates conjugate, and N is the total number of the
wavenumbers. Assuming P
(ki)
=|E
0
(k
i
)|
2
, power spectrum