Author:
Izatt Joseph A.,Hee Michael R.,Tearney Gary,Owen Gabrielle M.,Swanson Eric,Fujimoto James G.
Abstract
Confocal microscopy has become a standard technique for high resolution optical imaging in many fields1,2. Confocal imaging is conventionally limited to relatively transparent specimens, since image contrast is degraded by light scattering in turbid samples. We have developed a new method for coherent confocal microsopy which uses low-coherence interferometry to enhance optical sectioning in highly scattering media. In optical coherence microscopy (OCM), improved confocal imaging is achieved through high detection sensitivity and high contrast rejection of out-of-focus light. OCM is an adaptation of optical coherence tomography (OCT), which has recently been demonstrated for noninvasive, ten-micron-scale resolution imaging in the eye and other biological tissues3-5. The extension of this technique to confocal microscopy offers the potential for micron-resolution imaging deep into highly scattering media such as skin and endoscopically accessible tissues, and may make possible the development of a new form of noninvasive "optical biopsy."