Image quality improvement with dispersion compensation and retrieval algorithms in optical coherence tomography

We proposed and demonstrated a novel technique of improving the spatial resolution of an optical coherence tomography (OCT) system given a certain light source spectrum. By using dispersive materials in the reference arm of the OCT system, the resultant dispersion compensation led to a FWHM of interference fringe envelope smaller than the Fourier transform limited value, at the expense of significant tails. The effects of the tails, which would blur the OCT images, were tremendously reduced with retrieval algorithms. Simulation results and processed OCT scanning images have shown the capability of the proposed technique. Two retrieval algorithms were proposed and compared.