Abstract

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a powerful optical imaging method, which allows in-vivo imaging at video rate and enjoys a penetration depth of 2 – 3mm in biological tissues. OCT is essentially a morphological imaging modality that detects the backscattered light without molecular specificity. Since molecular information is of prime importance in most biomedical applications, continuous effort is going on in development of effective contrast agents. Gold nanoparticles, conjugated to various biomolecules, have been used with OCT to visualize the molecular concentration in thick biological tissues. However, due to strong microscopic scattering in tissue, the scattering signal from nanoparticles may not be readily distinguishable from the background signal; thus limiting the detection sensitivity [1].

© 2013 Optical Society of America