Imaging systems are provided allowing examination of different object regions spaced apart in a depth direction by visual microscopy and by optical coherence tomography. An axial field of view and a lateral resolution is varied depending on which object region is examined by the imaging system. The proposed imaging systems are in particular applicable for thorough examination of the human eye.

Imaging systems are provided allowing examination of different object regions spaced apart in a depth direction by visual microscopy and by optical coherence tomography. An axial field of view and a lateral resolution is varied depending on which object region is examined by the imaging system. The proposed imaging systems are in particular applicable for thorough examination of the human eye.

The disclosure relates to an optical system for inspecting an eye, having an OCT system which is configured to generate a measurement beam, which is incident on an object region in a converging manner to form a measurement focus. The OCT system has a beam expander which is disposed along the measurement beam between the scanning system and the objective lens and generates an intermediate focus between the scanning system and the objective lens. The OCT system is configured to generate different values of a beam waist diameter of the beam waist by means of controlling the controllable beam expansion of the beam expander. At the different values of the beam waist diameter, an axial beam waist position of the beam waist is substantially identical.

Monolithic beam-shaping optical systems and methods are disclosed for an optical coherence tomography (OCT) probe that includes a transparent cylindrical housing having asymmetric optical power. The system includes a transparent monolithic body having a folded optical axis and at least one alignment feature that supports the end of an optical fiber adjacent an angled planar end wall. The monolithic body also includes a total-internal reflection surface and a lens surface that define object and image planes. Light from the optical fiber end traverses the optical path, which includes the cylindrical housing residing between the lens surface and the image plane. Either the lens surface by itself or the lens surface and the reflective (eg, TIR) surface in combination are configured to substantially correct for the asymmetric optical power of the cylindrical housing, thereby forming a substantially rotationally symmetric image spot at the image plane.

Imaging systems are provided allowing examination of different object regions spaced apart in a depth direction by visual microscopy and by optical coherence tomography. An axial field of view and a lateral resolution is varied depending on which object region is examined by the imaging system. The proposed imaging systems are in particular applicable for thorough examination of the human eye.

Disclosed is an illumination system for an interferometer including: a source of system light; a steering-mirror assembly to receive and reflect the system-light in at least two orthogonal directions; a tracking mechanism to track an angular orientation of the steering-mirror assembly in the two orthogonal directions and provide electronic signals representative of the angular orientation; a focus lens assembly to focus the system light reflected off the steering mirror assembly onto a focused spot on a 2-dimensional plane corresponding to a source plane of the interferometer; and an electronic controller operatively coupled to the steering-mirror assembly and configured to cause the focused spot on the source plane to follow a predetermined motion trajectory.

Methods and devices are disclosed to perform depth resolved imaging using parallel lateral detection employing a photodetector block in a detection path that is substantially perpendicular to the direction of light excitation, with applications in microscopy of samples. The photodetector block either comprises a single 1D array of photodetectors or a 2D array of photodetectors. Methods and devices are disclosed to perform coherence gating in configurations of light sheet tomography, to enable simultaneous depth resolved measurements of structure and of index of refraction variation.