Spectral shaping to improve the point spread function in optical coherence tomography

We demonstrate inhibition of the sidelobes of the axial point spread function in optical coherence tomography by shaping the power spectrum of the light source with a remaining power of 4.54 mW. A broadband amplified spontaneous emission source radiating at 1565 +/- 40 nm is employed in a free-space optical coherence tomography system. The axial point spread functions before and after optical spectral shaping are presented. Results show that spectral shaping of the source can inhibit sidelobes of the point spread function up to 12.9 dB, with an associated small increase of 2.2 dB in noise floor in the far field. The effect of spectral shaping on axial resolution is demonstrated according to three metrics. Image quality improvement is also illustrated with optical coherence tomography images of an onion before and after spectral shaping. (C) 2003 Optical Society of America.