Adaptive optics optical coherence tomography at 1 MHz

Image acquisition speed of optical coherence tomography (OCT) remains a fundamental barrier that limits its scientific and clinical utility. Here we demonstrate a novel multi-camera adaptive optics (AO-)OCT system for ophthalmologic use that operates at 1 million A-lines/s at a wavelength of 790 nm with 5.3 mu m axial resolution in retinal tissue. Central to the spectral-domain design is a novel detection channel based on four high-speed spectrometers that receive light sequentially from a 1 x 4 optical switch assembly. Absence of moving parts enables ultra-fast (50ns) and precise switching with low insertion loss (-0.18 dB per channel). This manner of control makes use of all available light in the detection channel and avoids camera dead-time, both critical for imaging at high speeds. Additional benefit in signal-to-noise accrues from the larger numerical aperture afforded by the use of AO and yields retinal images of comparable dynamic range to that of clinical OCT. We validated system performance by a series of experiments that included imaging in both model and human eyes. We demonstrated the performance of our MHz AO-OCT system to capture detailed images of individual retinal nerve fiber bundles and cone photoreceptors. This is the fastest ophthalmic OCT system we know of in the 700 to 915 nm spectral band. (C) 2014 Optical Society of America