Link to DOI – 10.1088/1464-4258/7/8/003
J. Opt. A: Pure Appl. Opt. 7 368
We explore the potential and the limitations of a new ultrashort acquisition time en face optical coherence tomography (OCT) technique in application to ocular imaging. The instrument is based on the Linnik interferometer, illuminated with a xenon flash lamp. Transverse resolution is determined by the numerical aperture of the microscope objectives, whilst axial resolution is governed by the source coherence length. An isotropic resolution of ∼1 µm is achieved. The acquisition speed is determined by the flash pulse duration, i.e. 10 µs. A full two-dimensional en face tomographic image is captured in this time period. Preliminary results of imaging in ex vivo ocular tissues of the rat are presented and compared with results obtained using our original full-field OCT system. The possibility of extension to in vivo imaging is discussed.