Long-to-short wavelength swept source.

Most swept external cavity diode lasers tune in the short-to-long wavelength direction (red tuning). Lower relative intensity noise (RIN) and higher output power are typically possible in this direction. We show here that long-to-short tuning (blue tuning) is possible for a short, linear cavity laser that has both low noise and high power. This mode of operation is made possible by nonlinear frequency broadening in the semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) followed by clipping of the red portion of the spectrum by the micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) tunable Fabry-Perot filter. Blue shifting during gain recovery is an important broadening mechanism. There is an approximate 50% advantage in coherence length for the same filter bandwidth for blue over red tuning, which allows deeper imaging in optical coherence tomography (OCT) applications. Calculations contrasting the blue tuning mechanism with red tuning are presented. The accuracy of the blue-tuning model is confirmed by coherence and coherence revival measurements and simulations.

Coherence properties of short cavity swept lasers.

It has been shown theoretically and experimentally that short cavity swept lasers are passively mode locked. We develop a mathematical model of these lasers and the light field solutions are used to predict the coherence length and coherence revival behavior. The calculations compare favorably with data from a 990-1100 nm laser swept at 100 kHz suitable for optical coherence tomography applications.

SNR of swept SLEDs and swept lasers for OCT.

A back-to-back comparison of a tunable narrow-band-filtered SLED (TSLED) and a swept laser are made for OCT applications. The two sources are similar in terms of sweep speed, tuning range and coherence length. A fundamental issue with a TSLED is that the RIN is proportional to 1/linewidth, meaning that the longer the coherence length, the higher the RIN and clock jitter. We show that the TSLED has an SNR limit that causes noise streaks at points of high reflection in images. The laser, which is shot noise limited, does not exhibit this effect. We add noise terms proportional to the sample power times reference power to standard swept source SNR expressions to account for the SNR limit.

Performance of reduced bit-depth acquisition for optical frequency domain imaging.

High-speed optical frequency domain imaging (OFDI) has enabled practical wide-field microscopic imaging in the biological laboratory and clinical medicine. The imaging speed of OFDI, and therefore the field of view, of current systems is limited by the rate at which data can be digitized and archived rather than the system sensitivity or laser performance. One solution to this bottleneck is to natively digitize OFDI signals at reduced bit depths, e.g., at 8-bit depth rather than the conventional 12-14 bit depth, thereby reducing overall bandwidth. However, the implications of reduced bit-depth acquisition on image quality have not been studied. In this paper, we use simulations and empirical studies to evaluate the effects of reduced depth acquisition on OFDI image quality. We show that image acquisition at 8-bit depth allows high system sensitivity with only a minimal drop in the signal-to-noise ratio compared to higher bit-depth systems. Images of a human coronary artery acquired in vivo at 8-bit depth are presented and compared with images at higher bit-depth acquisition.

Miniature swept source for point of care optical frequency domain imaging.

Point of care (POC) medical technologies require portable, small, robust instrumentation for practical implementation. In their current embodiment, optical frequency domain imaging (OFDI) systems employ large form-factor wavelength-swept lasers, making them impractical in the POC environment. Here, we describe a first step toward a POC OFDI system by demonstrating a miniaturized swept-wavelength source. The laser is based on a tunable optical filter using a reflection grating and a miniature resonant scanning mirror. The laser achieves 75 nm of bandwidth centered at 1340 nm, a 0.24 nm instantaneous line width, a 15.3 kHz repetition rate with 12 mW peak output power, and a 30.4 kHz A-line rate when utilizing forward and backward sweeps. The entire laser system is approximately the size of a deck of cards and can operate on battery power for at least one hour.

Automated algorithm for differentiation of human breast tissue using low coherence interferometry for fine needle aspiration biopsy guidance.

Fine needle aspiration biopsy (FNAB) is a rapid and cost-effective method for obtaining a first-line diagnosis of a palpable mass of the breast. However, because it can be difficult to manually discriminate between adipose tissue and the fibroglandular tissue more likely to harbor disease, this technique is plagued by a high number of nondiagnostic tissue draws. We have developed a portable, low coherence interferometry (LCI) instrument for FNAB guidance to combat this problem. The device contains an optical fiber probe inserted within the bore of the fine gauge needle and is capable of obtaining tissue structural information with a spatial resolution of 10 mum over a depth of approximately 1.0 mm. For such a device to be effective clinically, algorithms that use the LCI data must be developed for classifying different tissue types. We present an automated algorithm for differentiating adipose tissue from fibroglandular human breast tissue based on three parameters computed from the LCI signal (slope, standard deviation, spatial frequency content). A total of 260 breast tissue samples from 58 patients were collected from excised surgical specimens. A training set (N=72) was used to extract parameters for each tissue type and the parameters were fit to a multivariate normal density. The model was applied to a validation set (N=86) using likelihood ratios to classify groups. The overall accuracy of the model was 91.9% (84.0 to 96.7) with 98.1% (89.7 to 99.9) sensitivity and 82.4% (65.5 to 93.2) specificity where the numbers in parentheses represent the 95% confidence intervals. These results suggest that LCI can be used to determine tissue type and guide FNAB of the breast.