Imaging biological tissue at extended depth using swept-source visible-light OCT
- 1Northwestern University
Abstract
We present a swept-source visible-light optical coherence tomography (SS-vis-OCT) system with twice the imaging depth of prior SS-vis-OCT and improved sensitivity for imaging biological samples, achieving shot-noise-limited operation. Because second-harmonic generation is limited by the booster optical amplifier's output power, the visible-light SS power is capped at 450 W. Increasing it further would require a more powerful, but costlier, amplifier. Instead, we reduce the receiver noise floor by selecting a balanced detector with NEP approaching the thermal (Johnson-Nyquist) limit. Real-time numerical k-linearization increases the effective number of linear-in-wavenumber samples per sweep, further improving SNR and extending the imaging range. Together, these improvements yield a sensitivity of 89 dB and an imaging depth of 9 mm in air or 6.5 mm in tissue, enabling full anterior-segment imaging of ex vivo porcine eyes.
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BibTeX
@misc{fan2026imaging,
title = {{Imaging biological tissue at extended depth using swept-source visible-light OCT}},
author = {W. Fan and R. Kuranov and M. Shi and J. Zhang and F. Xu and H. F. Zhang},
howpublished = {bioRxiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.64898/2026.10.16.759740},
url = {https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.10.16.759740v1},
note = {CC BY-NC-ND},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Imaging biological tissue at extended depth using swept-source visible-light OCT
AU - W. Fan
AU - R. Kuranov
AU - M. Shi
AU - J. Zhang
AU - F. Xu
AU - H. F. Zhang
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/16
PB - bioRxiv
DO - 10.64898/2026.10.16.759740
UR - https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.10.16.759740v1
AB - We present a swept-source visible-light optical coherence tomography (SS-vis-OCT) system with twice the imaging depth of prior SS-vis-OCT and improved sensitivity for imaging biological samples, achieving shot-noise-limited operation. Because second-harmonic generation is limited by the booster optical amplifier's output power, the visible-light SS power is capped at 450 W. Increasing it further would require a more powerful, but costlier, amplifier. Instead, we reduce the receiver noise floor by selecting a balanced detector with NEP approaching the thermal (Johnson-Nyquist) limit. Real-time numerical k-linearization increases the effective number of linear-in-wavenumber samples per sweep, further improving SNR and extending the imaging range. Together, these improvements yield a sensitivity of 89 dB and an imaging depth of 9 mm in air or 6.5 mm in tissue, enabling full anterior-segment imaging of ex vivo porcine eyes.
SN - 2692-8205
ER -