Tapered structure based all-fiber probe for endoscopic optical coherence tomography

Abstract

A tapered structure based all-fiber endoscopic probe for endoscopic optical coherence tomography (OCT) is presented in this paper. The designation and fabrication of a miniaturized high-performance probe are critical in endoscopic OCT. Compared to the conventional fiber-lens structure based endoscopic probe, the all-fiber probe has a prominent edge in size and flexibility. Due to its lower beam-divergence, the large core multi-mode fiber makes a better fit than a general single mode fiber does when utilized to replace the micro lens in a conventional endoscopic probe as the imaging component. Furthermore, a tapered fiber is introduced as a transition section between the single mode fiber and the large core multi-mode fiber in order to enhance the light transmission efficiency and reduce the rigid length of the probe simultaneously. First, in order to obtain an optimal performance, optical simulation software(Rsoft) is adopted to determine the probe's proper lengths of the tapered section and the large core multi-mode fiber. Second, the all-fiber structure based endoscopic probe is fabricated by means of large core multi-mode fiber tapering, cutting and fusing processes. The beam characterization and insertion loss of the fabricated probe are measured experimentally The probe itself is 250 m, and after covering with a stainless steel protective tube, its outer diameter becomes 325 m. The rigid length of the probe is about 1 cm, which is more flexible and easier for inserting into curved blood vessels. The insertion loss of the probe is measured to be about 0.3 dB. To the best of our knowledge, it is the lowest among all of the all-fiber endoscopic probes. Finally, the probe is integrated with a custom-built swept-source optical coherence tomography system. Imaging of human fingertip and ex-vivo chicken trachea is conducted to demonstrate the key performance parameters of our probe. The effective imaging range of the probe is up to 800 microns in air without the help of any extra mechanism to expand its depth of focus. The probe offers a compact, efficient and flexible candidate for endoscopic optical coherence tomography, which is promising in cardiovascular investigations.