Inverse scattering for frequency-scanned full-field optical coherence tomography

Full-field optical coherence tomography (OCT) is able to image an entire en face plane of scatterers simultaneously, but typically the focus is scanned through the volume to acquire three-dimensional structure. By solving the inverse scattering problem for full-field OCT, we show it is possible to computationally reconstruct a three-dimensional volume while the focus is fixed at one plane inside the sample. While a low-numerical-aperture (NA) OCT system can tolerate defocus because the depth of field is large, for high NA it is critical to correct for defocus. By deriving a solution to the inverse scattering problem for full-field OCT, we propose and simulate an algorithm that recovers object structure both inside and outside the depth of field, so that even for high NA the focus can be fixed at a particular plane within the sample without compromising resolution away from the focal plane. (c) 2007 Optical Society of America.