Calibration procedure for enhanced mirror artifact removal in full-range optical coherence tomography using passive quadrature demultiplexing.

SIGNIFICANCE

Passive quadrature demultiplexing allows full-range optical coherence tomography (FR-OCT). However, imperfections in the wavelength- and frequency-response of the demodulation circuits can cause residual mirror artifacts, which hinder high-quality imaging on both sides of zero delay.

AIM

We aim at achieving high mirror artifact extinction by calibrated postprocessing of the FR-OCT signal.

APPROACH

We propose a mathematical framework for the origin of the residual mirror peaks as well as a protocol allowing the precise measurement and correction of the associated errors directly from mirror measurements.

RESULTS

We demonstrate high extinction of the mirror artifact over the entire imaging range, as well as an assessment of the method's robustness to time and experimental conditions. We also provide a detailed description of the practical implementation of the method to ensure optimal reproducibility.

CONCLUSION

The proposed method is simple to implement and produces high mirror artifact extinction. This may encourage the adoption of FR-OCT in clinical and industrial systems or loosen the performance requirements on the optical demodulation circuit, as the imperfections can be handled in postprocessing.