Abstract

Confocal microscopy has become a standard technique for high resolution optical imaging in many fields^1,2. Confocal imaging is conventionally limited to relatively transparent specimens, since image contrast is degraded by light scattering in turbid samples. We have developed a new method for coherent confocal microsopy which uses low-coherence interferometry to enhance optical sectioning in highly scattering media. In optical coherence microscopy (OCM), improved confocal imaging is achieved through high detection sensitivity and high contrast rejection of out-of-focus light. OCM is an adaptation of optical coherence tomography (OCT), which has recently been demonstrated for noninvasive, ten-micron-scale resolution imaging in the eye and other biological tissues^3-5. The extension of this technique to confocal microscopy offers the potential for micron-resolution imaging deep into highly scattering media such as skin and endoscopically accessible tissues, and may make possible the development of a new form of noninvasive "optical biopsy."

© 1994 Optical Society of America