Ultrahigh-Resolution Spectral Domain Optical Coherence Tomography Based on a Linear-Wavenumber Spectrometer

In this study we demonstrate ultrahigh-resolution spectral domain optical coherence tomography (UHR SD-OCT) with a linear-wavenumber (k) spectrometer; to accelerate signal processing and to display two-dimensional (2-D) images in real time. First, we performed a numerical simulation to find the optimal parameters for the linear-k spectrometer to achieve ultrahigh axial resolution, such as the number of grooves in a grating, the material for a dispersive prism, and the rotational angle between the grating and the dispersive prism. We found that a grating with 1200 grooves and an F2 equilateral prism at a rotational angle of 26.07 degrees, in combination with a lens of focal length 85.1 mm, are suitable for UHR SD-OCT with the imaging depth range (limited by spectrometer resolution) set at 2.0 mm. As guided by the simulation results, we constructed the linear-k spectrometer needed to implement a UHR SD-OCT. The actual imaging depth range was measured to be approximately 2.1 mm, and axial resolution of 3.8 mu m in air was achieved, corresponding to 2.8 mu m in tissue (n = 1.35). The sensitivity was -91 dB with -10 dB roll-off at 1.5 mm depth. We demonstrated a 128.2 fps acquisition rate for OCT images with 800 lines/frame, by taking advantage of NVIDIA's compute unified device architecture (CUDA) technology, which allowed for real-time signal processing compatible with the speed of the spectrometer's data acquisition.