Open AccessSpeckle reducing OCT using optical chopper
Author(s) -
Rui Li,
He Yin,
Jiaying Hong,
Chengming Wang,
Bin He,
Zhengyu Chen,
Qin Li,
Ping Xue,
Xiao Zhang
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
optics express
Language(s) - Uncategorized
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.394
H-Index - 271
ISSN - 1094-4087
DOI - 10.1364/oe.382369
Subject(s) - optical coherence tomography , speckle pattern , speckle noise , image quality , chopper , optics , imaging phantom , image resolution , materials science , noise (video) , computer science , biomedical engineering , artificial intelligence , physics , medicine , image (mathematics) , quantum mechanics , voltage
Optical coherence tomography (OCT) has been an important and powerful tool for biological research and clinical applications. However, speckle noise significantly degrades the image quality of OCT and has a negative impact on the clinical diagnosis accuracy. In this paper, we propose a novel speckle noise suppression technique which changes the spatial distribution of sample beam using a special optical chopper. Then a series of OCT images with uncorrelated speckle patterns could be captured and compounded to improve the image quality without degradation of resolution. Typical signal-to-noise ratio improvement of ∼6.4 dB is experimentally achieved in tissue phantom imaging with average number n = 100. Furthermore, compared with conventional OCT, the proposed technique is demonstrated to view finer and clearer biological structures in human skin in vivo, such as sweat glands and blood vessels. The advantages of low cost, simple structure and compact integration will benefit the future design of handheld or endoscopic probe for biomedical imaging in research and clinical applications.