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Differences between time domain and Fourier domain optical coherence tomography in imaging tissues
Author(s) -
GAO W.,
WU X.
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
journal of microscopy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.569
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1365-2818
pISSN - 0022-2720
DOI - 10.1111/jmi.12592
Subject(s) - optical coherence tomography , optics , fourier transform , speckle pattern , frequency domain , point spread function , resolution (logic) , interference (communication) , physics , fourier domain , time domain , coherence (philosophical gambling strategy) , computer science , mathematics , mathematical analysis , telecommunications , channel (broadcasting) , quantum mechanics , artificial intelligence , computer vision
Summary It has been numerously demonstrated that both time domain and Fourier domain optical coherence tomography (OCT) can generate high‐resolution depth‐resolved images of living tissues and cells. In this work, we compare the common points and differences between two methods when the continuous and random properties of live tissue are taken into account. It is found that when relationships that exist between the scattered light and tissue structures are taken into account, spectral interference measurements in Fourier domain OCT (FDOCT) is more advantageous than interference fringe envelope measurements in time domain OCT (TDOCT) in the cases where continuous property of tissue is taken into account. It is also demonstrated that when random property of tissue is taken into account FDOCT measures the Fourier transform of the spatial correlation function of the refractive index and speckle phenomena will limit the effective limiting imaging resolution in both TDOCT and FDOCT. Finally, the effective limiting resolution of both TDOCT and FDOCT are given which can be used to estimate the effective limiting resolution in various practical applications.