STTR Phase I: Spectrally Agile, Photonic Crystal Fiber-Based Optical Coherence Tomography

This Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase I project will investigate an optical coherence tomography (OCT) instrument useful for a wide range of research and development needs in material science, biology, medicine and other fields. Users will be able to optimize the imaging parameters for their specific applications by selecting the center wavelength and resolution with simple changes in optics. The result is an instrument that can be easily used by researchers with little optics expertise. The key innovation allowing such a design is the stale, spectrally smooth, ultra-broadband light source that will be developed in Phase I. Successful completion of this project will result in a commercial, versatile, easily used FD-OCT instrument. The intended market is research laboratories in academia, industry and government. The envisioned instrument will be an enabling technology for researchers in a variety of fields, allowing them to obtain high quality OCT images with tunable spectral and resolution parameters matched to their research needs.