An optical coherence tomography system which is capable of operating in two or more optical bandwidth configurations for the purpose of trading off between high resolution imaging and high signal-to-noise ratio imaging, wherein the later enables deeper imaging depth. The system and associated methods allow for both high resolution, shallow penetration depth and low resolution, deep penetration depth optical coherence tomography imaging to be performed using a single light source. Methods and apparatus are described that allow a single system to dynamically switch between modes, or to operate in a hybrid mode that achieves a balance between resolution and SNR/depth of penetration.

A calibration system for calibrating a tilt angle of the fast steering mirror includes a position sensing device configured to generate a beam of electromagnetic radiation, and a diffractive optical element, positioned between the position sensing device and the fast steering mirror, the diffractive optical element being configured to divide the input beam into a plurality of output beams directed to the fast steering mirror. The position sensing device is configured to determine a tilt angle of the fast steering mirror. A method to calibrate a tilt angle of the fast steering mirror is further disclosed.

The range of measurement in spectrally controlled interferometry (SCI) is extended by superimposing multiple modulations on the low-coherence light used for the measurement. Optimally, a spectrally controllable light source modulated sinusoidally with low spectral frequency is combined with a delay line, such as provided by a Michelson interferometer. The resulting light is injected into a Fizeau interferometer to generate localized fringes at a distance corresponding to the effect of the spectrally modulated source combined with the optical path difference produced by the delay line. The combination provides a convenient way to practice SCI with all its advantages and with a range that can be extended to the degree required for any practically foreseeable application.

In an inner layer measurement method, first irradiation light and second irradiation light having a peak wavelength longer than that of the first irradiation light are formed by changing at least one of a position where light emitted from a lamp is transmitted through a short pass filter and a position where light emitted from a lamp is transmitted through a long pass filter. Then, a first XY sectional surface of a semitransparent body is measured by irradiating the first XY sectional surface with the first irradiation light. A second XY sectional surface positioned on a layer deeper than the first XY sectional surface is measured by irradiating the second XY sectional surface with the second irradiation light. Each of the short pass filter and the long pass filter can transmit the light and has properties of changing a cutoff wavelength according to the position where the light is transmitted.

The invention generally relates to an optical coherence tomography system that is reconfigurable between two different imaging modes and methods of use thereof.

One or more light source apparatuses, one or more information acquisition apparatuses and related method(s) are discussed herein. At least one embodiment of a light source apparatus includes a light source that generates first pulsed light and a nonlinear optical medium that generates second pulsed light having a wavelength different from that of the first pulsed light due to incidence of the first pulsed light. The light source may be configured so that the center wavelength of the first pulsed light is variable across the zero dispersion wavelength of the nonlinear optical medium.

An interferometry apparatus comprising: a laser source operable to emit a first light beam; a beam splitter arranged to split the first light beam into an object beam and a reference beam, the object beam passing along an object beam arm and the reference beam passing along a reference beam arm; an adaptive delay line located a distance along the reference beam arm, the adaptive delay line being configured to provide, in use, one or more length-adjusted reference beams; a beam splitter arranged to recombine the object beam from the object beam arm and the length-adjusted reference beam(s) from the reference beam arm; and a photodetector operable to detect interference between the object beam and the length-adjusted reference beam(s).