Noise characterization of supercontinuum sources for low-coherence interferometry applications.
We examine the noise properties of supercontinuum light sources when used in low-coherence interferometry applications. The first application is a multiple-scattering low-coherence interferometry (ms2/LCI) system, where high power and long image acquisition times are required to image deep into tissue. For this system, we compare the noise characteristics of two supercontinuum sources from different suppliers. Both sources have long-term drift that limits the amount of time over which signal averaging is advantageous for reducing noise. The second application is a high-resolution optical coherence tomography system, where broadband light is needed for high axial resolution. For this system, we compare the noise performance of the two supercontinuum sources and a light source based on four superluminescent diodes (SLD) using imaging contrast as a comparative metric. We find that the NKT SuperK has superior noise performance compared with the Fianium SC-450-4, but neither meets the performance of the SLD.
Duke Scholars
Published In
DOI
EISSN
ISSN
Publication Date
Volume
Issue
Start / End Page
Related Subject Headings
- Tomography, Optical Coherence
- Signal-To-Noise Ratio
- Phantoms, Imaging
- Optics
- Light
- Interferometry
- 4009 Electronics, sensors and digital hardware
- 4006 Communications engineering
- 1113 Opthalmology and Optometry
- 0906 Electrical and Electronic Engineering
Citation
Published In
DOI
EISSN
ISSN
Publication Date
Volume
Issue
Start / End Page
Related Subject Headings
- Tomography, Optical Coherence
- Signal-To-Noise Ratio
- Phantoms, Imaging
- Optics
- Light
- Interferometry
- 4009 Electronics, sensors and digital hardware
- 4006 Communications engineering
- 1113 Opthalmology and Optometry
- 0906 Electrical and Electronic Engineering