Abstract

Optical coherence-domain techniques have recently emerged as viable alternatives to time-domain techniques in many applications, In 1987, it was demonstrated that a superluminescent-diode-laser based white- light interferometer can be used for reflectometry with a resolution as great as 10 μm¹ The resolution, which corresponds to 47 fs Gaussian pulses, is due to the ultrashort coherence length of the light source. Later, the technique was used to map intraocular structures with great precision by measuring the weak backscattered light from intraocular tissue interfaces² Recently, our research group has developed a range-gating imaging technique using the same type of interferometer, and we used the technique to recover images diffused by random scattering media. The success of these experiments shows that white-light interferometry is indeed an attractive alternative to optical correlation using ultra-short laser pulses.

© 1993 Optical Society of America