ABSTRACT
One of the important challenges for biomedical optics is noninvasive
3D imaging, and various techniques have been proposed and
available. For example, confocal scanningmicroscopy provides high-
resolution sectioning and in-focus images of a specimen. However,
it is intrinsically limited in frame rate due to serial acquisition
of the image pixels. Ophthalmic imaging applications of laser
scanning in vivo confocal microscopy have been recently reviewed
[1]. Another technique, optical coherence tomography (OCT), is a
scanning imaging technique with micrometer scale axial and lateral
resolution, based on low coherence or white light interferometry to
coherently gate backscattered signal from different depths in the
object [2, 3]. Fourier domain optical coherence tomography (FD-
OCT) is a significant improvement over the time domain optical
coherence tomography (TD-OCT) [4-6], in terms of the acquisition
speed and sensitivity. A related technique of wavelength scanning
interferometry uses the phase of the interference signal, between
the reference light and the object light which varies in the time
while the wavelength of a source is swept over a range. A height
resolution of about 3 μm has been reported using a Ti:sapphire
laser with wavelength scanning range of about 100 nm [7, 8]. The
technique of structured illuminationmicroscopy provideswide-field
depth-resolved imagingwith no requirement for time-of-flight gated
detection [9].
