Pixel-reassigned spectral-domain optical coherence tomography

Abstract

A novel method of pixel reassignment (PRA) is proposed to achieve transverse superresolution in the confocal microscopy. Inspired by it, for the first time, we report a pixel-reassigned spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (OCT) with ~1.5 times transverse resolution improvement both in numerical simulations and imaging experiments. PRA is implemented by transversely shifting the detection fiber from the on-axis position to five off-axis positions, capturing cross-sectional images at each shifting step of the detection fiber and digitally reassigning them together to give a sharper image with moderately extended depth of focus and enhanced intensity. So, we believe that the PRA technique will improve the imaging performance and be beneficial to the development of the OCT community.