An optical coherence tomography apparatus includes a branching and merging device that branches a light beam emitted from a wavelength sweeping laser light source into an object light beam and a reference light beam, a balanced photodetector that generates information about a change in an intensity ratio of interference light beams, which are generated by the interference between the object light beam and the reference light beam, wherein the object light beam is scattered from the measurement object after being transmitted through the transparent substrate including a structure that changes a thickness, and a control unit that acquires structural data of the measurement object in a depth direction based on the information about the change in the intensity ratio of the interference light beams and connects the structural data while moving an irradiation position of the object light beam with a position of the above structure as a reference.

An apparatus is provided that includes a detector configured to detect, cumulatively during an exposure period, spatially modulated light. The apparatus also includes modulation means for applying multiple different effective spatial modulations to received light, during the exposure period. A different effective spatial modulation is applied to received light in dependence upon a time during the exposure period of the detector and a frequency of the light, to produce spatially modulated light for detection by the detector.

Apparatus and methods are presented for enhancing the acquisition speed or performance of Fourier domain optical coherence tomography. In preferred embodiments a plurality of wavelength combs containing interleaved selections of wavelengths from a multi-wavelength optical source are generated and projected onto a sample. In certain embodiments the wavelength combs are projected simultaneously onto a plurality of regions of the sample, while in other embodiments the wavelength combs are projected sequentially onto the sample. Light in the wavelength combs reflected or scattered from the sample is detected in a single frame of a sensor array, and the detected light processed to obtain a tomographic profile of the sample. In preferred embodiments the wavelength comb generator comprises a wavelength interleaver in the form of a retro-reflective prism array for imparting different displacements to different selections of wavelengths from the optical source.

Described herein are an apparatus, system, and method for detecting light. An apparatus can include means for modulating an input beam of light wherein the input beam of light is obtained from an optical coherence tomography arrangement; means for dispersing the modulated beam of light; and means for detecting the dispersed beam of light and converting the detected beam of light into an electrical output signal. An apparatus can include a modulator configured to spatially modulate light; a dispersing element configured to disperse modulated light, and a detector configured to detect dispersed light and convert the detected light into electrical output signals. A method can include spatially modulating a beam of light, dispersing the modulated beam of light, detecting the dispersed beam of light, converting the detecting beam of light into electrical output signals, and providing a three-dimensional image of at least a part of an object.

It is provided a technique capable of noninvasively and quantitatively evaluating the state of cultured three-dimensional cell-based structure. A method of evaluating a three-dimensional cell-based structure according to the present invention comprises: performing tomography of the cultured three-dimensional cell-based structure (step S103); generating stereoscopic data indicating the three-dimensional shape of the three-dimensional cell-based structure based on image data acquired by the tomography (step S104); and counting the number of structures isolated from each other in the three-dimensional cell-based structure based on the stereoscopic data (step S105).

An apparatus comprising: a double path interferometer comprising a sample path for an object and a reference path; a source of linearly polarized light for the double path interferometer, a phase plate positioned in the sample path; means for superposing the sample path and reference path to create a beam of light for detection; means for spatially modulating the beam of light to produce a modulated beam of light; means for dispersing the modulated beam of light to produce a spatially modulated and dispersed beam of light; a first detector, a second detector, and means for splitting the spatially modulated and dispersed beam of light, wherein light of a first linear polarization is directed to the first detector and light of a second linear polarization, orthogonal to the first linear polarization, is directed to the second detector.

An optical instrument includes a first light source configured to generate a broadband light; an optical module configured to collimate the broadband light and focus the broadband light into a line; a beam splitter configured to split the broadband light into a sample beam and a reference beam and configured to combine the reference beam with the sample beam to form an interference beam; a control system configured to scan the sample beam on a retina of a subject along an axis that is substantially perpendicular to the sample beam; a second light source configured to stimulate the retina with a visible light to induce a physical change within the retina such that the sample beam is altered by the physical change; an image sensor; and a dispersive element configured to receive the interference beam from the beam splitter and to disperse the interference beam onto the image sensor.

A digital measuring device implemented on a photonic integrated circuit, the digital measuring device including a laser source configured to provide light, a first ring resonator configured to produce a first frequency comb of light from the laser source, wherein at least a portion of the first frequency comb of light is directed at a moving object, a local oscillator configured to provide a reference beam, at least one waveguide structure configured to combine the reference beam with light reflected from the moving object to produce a measurement beam, a first multiplexer configured to split the measurement beam into a plurality of channels spaced in frequency, and a plurality of detectors configured to detect an intensity value of each channel of the plurality of channels to measure a distance between the digital measuring device and the moving object.

An OCT apparatus includes an OCT optical system that has a light splitter splitting light from an OCT light source to light travelling to a measurement light path and light travelling to a reference light path and a detector detecting a spectrum interference signal of measurement light guided to a subject eye through the measurement light path and reference light from the reference light path, and a processing unit that processes the spectrum interference signal to generate OCT data. The processing unit performs at least complementary processing on an overlapping region of a real image and a virtual image in OCT data based on a plurality of OCT data obtained with different optical path lengths when detecting the spectrum interference signal, and generates OCT data subjected to the complementary processing.

Disclosed is an optical probe system that is capable of high speed, high precision, and high resolution 3D digitalization of engineered objects. The 3D dimensional data of the engineered object is measured using a swept source optical coherence tomography system with improved speed, spatial resolutions, and depth range. Also disclosed is a type of coordinate measurement machine (CMM) that is capable of performing high speed, high resolution, and non-contact measurement of engineered objects. The mechanic stylus in the touch-trigger probe of a conventional CMM is replaced with an optical stylus with reconfigurable diameter and length. The distance from the center of the optical stylus to the measurement probe is optically adjusted to match the height of the object to be measured quickly, which eliminates one dimensional movement of the probe and greatly improves the productivity.