We have developed an ultrahigh-resolution optical coherence tomographic system in which broadband continuum generation from a photonic crystal fiber is used to produce high longitudinal resolution. Longitudinal resolution of 1.3-microm has been achieved in a biological tissue by use of continuum light from 800 to 1400 nm. The system employed a dynamic-focusing tracking method to maintain high lateral resolution over a large imaging depth. Subcellular imaging is demonstrated.

The influence of depth dependent dispersion by the main component of biological tissues, water, on the resolution of OCT was studied. Investigations showed that it was possible to eliminate the influence of depth dependent dispersion by water in tissue by choosing a light source with a center wavelength near 1.0 microm. Ultrahigh resolution ophthalmic imaging was performed at this wavelength range with a microstructure fiber light source.

We developed a optical coherence tomographic (OCT) system which utilized broadband continuum generation for high axial resolution and a high numeric-aperture (N.A.) objective for high lateral resolution (<5 μm). The optimal focusing point was dynamically compensated during axial scanning so that it can be kept at the same position as the point that has an equal optical path length as that in the reference arm. This gives us uniform focusing size (< 5 um) at diffrent depths. A new self-adaptive fast Fourier transform (FFT) algorithm was developed to digitally demodulate the interference fringes. The system employed a four-channel detector array for speckle reduction that significantly improved the image's signal-to-noise ratio.