Refractive index tomography based on optical coherence tomography and tomographic reconstruction algorithm

Refractive index (RI) tomography based on not quantitative phase imaging (QPI) but optical coherence tomography (OCT) is proposed. In conventional RI tomography, the phase unwrapping process deteriorates measurement accuracy owing to the unwrapping error. To eliminate the unwrapping process, the introduction of OCT is proposed, because OCT directly provides optical thickness. The proposed method can improve measurement accuracy owing to the removal of the phase unwrapping error. The feasibility of the method is confirmed by numerical simulations and optical experiments. These results show that the proposed method can reduce measurement errors even when an object shows phase changes much larger than a wavelength. (C) 2017 The Japan Society of Applied Physics