Integrated photonic circuit in silicon on insulator for Fourier domain optical coherence tomography [7554-46]

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a medical imaging technology capable of producing high-resolution, crosssectional images through inhomogeneous samples, such as biological tissue. It has been widely adopted in clinical ophthalmology and a number of other clinical applications are in active research. Other applications of OCT include material characterization and non-destructive testing. In addition to current uses, OCT has a potential for a much wider range of applications and further commercialization. One of the reasons for slow penetration of OCT in clinical and industrial use is probably the cost and the size of the current systems. Current commercial and research OCT systems are fiber/free space optics based. Although fiber and micro-optical components have made these systems portable, further significant miniaturization and cost reduction could be achieved through the use of integrated photonic components. We demonstrate a Michelson interferometer using integrated photonic waveguides on nanophotonic silicon on insulator platform. The size of the interferometer is 1500 μm x 50 μm. The structure has been tested using a mirror as a reflector. We can achieve 40 μm axial resolution and 25 dB sensitivity which can be substantially improved.