The Research On Miniature Probe And Application Of Optical Coherence Tomography

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a biomedical imaging method developed recently.OCT can acquire cross-sectional images of the internal microstructure of living tissue andindustry material. It has the advantages of non-ionizing radiation, non-invasive, high resolutionand high sensitivity. OCT has a broad developing perspective.The research work consists of two parts including the application of OCT and the miniatureprobe of OCT. The fundamental principles and development of OCT were introduced, the lightsources, the interferometer, and the Fourier domain rapid scanning optical delay line werediscussed respectively.Based on the OCT system developed in our laboratory, a series of detection research wereconducted in some potential application field including medical and non-medical area.The experimental results confirm that OCT imaging can observe pathological process on theskin of live mouse and show the potential of OCT in diagnosis of skin tumor. For dentalapplication, the location and degree of pathological changes can be shown in the OCT imagesdue to the scattering difference of enamel and dentin. The feasibility of gastrointestinalapplications of OCT is also shown experimentally.In the non-medical application, OCT imaging can be used in flaw detect and nacremeasurement by unveiling the interior microstructure of polymeric material and nacreous layer.A miniature type probe of OCT based on GRIN lens and piezoelectricity ceramic ispresented, and the good performance and flexibility applied in dentistry was confirmed by theexperimental results. The design, principle and discussion of this miniature probe are describedin detail.