Modern Optics and Spectroscopy

Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) is a novel biomedical imaging technique which uses lowcoherence optical interferometry to obtain micron-scale resolution tomographic images of subsurface tissue structure noninvasively. We have developed OCT scanners compatible with minimally invasive delivery technologies (i.e., biomicroscopy, endoscopy) capable of imaging up to video rate. Clinical studies of OCT imaging in the eye, skin, and gastrointestinal tissues are under way which demonstrate reproducible image contrast between morphological tissue layers, as well as differentiation between normal and abnormal tissue regions. We have also demonstrated OCT applications for noninvasive 3D imaging in embryos and small animals. We report on dramatic recent technical advances in OCT which have significantly enhanced its capability for minimally invasive clinical diagnostics and for basic biological research. These include system designs which achieve a significant SNR advantage through parallel detection, as well as the first demonstrations of molecular imaging with OCT.