Spectroscopic phase-dispersion optical coherence tomography measurements of scattering phantoms

Published

September 4, 2006

Author(s)

Shellee D. Dyer, Tasshi Dennis, Lara Roberson, Shelley M. Etzel, Thomas Germer, Andrew Dienstfrey

Abstract

We demonstrate a novel technique to determine the size of Mie scatterers with high sensitivity. Our technique is based on spectral domain optical coherence tomography measurements of the phase dispersion that is induced by the scattering process. We use both Mie scattering predictions and dispersion measurements of phantoms to show that the scattering dispersion is very sensitive to small changes in the size and/or refractive index of the scatterer. We also show the light scattered from a single sphere is, in some cases, non-minimum phase. Therefore the phase is independent of the intensity of the scattered light, and both intensity and phase must be measured directly in order to characterize more completely the scattering problem. Phase dispersion measurements may have application to distinguishing the size and refractive index of scattering particles in biological tissue samples.

Citation

Optics Express

Volume

14

Issue

18

Pub Type

Journals

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Keywords

Dispersion, Interferometry, Mie Theory, Optical Coherence Tomography, Phase Measurement, Scattering Measurements.

Citation

Dyer, S. , Dennis, T. , Roberson, L. , Etzel, S. , Germer, T. and Dienstfrey, A. (2006), Spectroscopic phase-dispersion optical coherence tomography measurements of scattering phantoms, Optics Express, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=32341 (Accessed October 16, 2025)