Filtering for unwrapping noisy Doppler optical coherence tomography images for extended microscopic fluid velocity measurement range

In this Letter, we report the first application of two phase denoising algorithms to Doppler optical coherence tomography (DOCT) velocity maps. When combined with unwrapping algorithms, significantly extended fluid velocity dynamic range is achieved. Instead of the physical upper bound, the fluid velocity dynamic range is now limited by noise level. We show comparisons between physical simulated ideal velocity maps and the experimental results of both algorithms. We demonstrate unwrapped DOCT velocity maps having a peak velocity nearly 10 times the theoretical measurement range.