Optical sensing based on measurements of displacements induced by optical forces in viscoelastic media using phase-sensitive optical coherence tomography

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10197379-B2
Application number	US-201715445690-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 28, 2017
Priority date	May 22, 2015
Publication date	Feb 5, 2019
Grant date	Feb 5, 2019

Abstract

A system for providing optical actuation and optical sensing can include an optical coherence tomography (OCT) device that performs optical imaging of a sample based on optical interferometry from an optical sampling beam interacting with an optical sample and an optical reference beam; an OCT light source to provide an OCT imaging beam into the OCT device which splits the OCT imaging beam into the optical sampling beam and the optical reference beam; and a light source that produces an optical actuation beam comprising a plurality of wavelengths that is coupled along with the optical sampling beam to be directed to the sample to actuate particles or structures in the sample so that the optical imaging captures information of the sample under the optical actuation.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for sensing a sample based on optical actuation of the sample, comprising:
operating an optical coherence tomography (OCT) device to obtain optical images of a sample based on optical interference of an optical sampling beam interacting with an optical sample and an optical reference beam from an OCT light source emitting light within an optical spectral band of different optical wavelengths;
operating a light source to produce an optical actuation beam comprising a plurality of wavelengths, at least one of which is different from a wavelength of the light of the OCT light source, and wherein the optical actuation beam includes a first beam at an actuation wavelength and a second beam at a quenching wavelength; and
directing the optical actuation beam along with the optical sampling beam to the sample to actuate particles or structures in the sample so that the optical imaging captures information of the sample under the optical actuation.

2. The method as in claim 1 , comprising modulating the optical actuation beam using a drive waveform.

3. The method as in claim 2 , wherein the optical actuation beam is modulated in amplitude or power.

4. The method as in claim 1 , further comprising processing optical imaging information from OCT device output based on varying mechanical properties of different sample materials to distinguish one sample material from another.

5. The method as in claim 1 , further comprising processing optical imaging information from OCT device output based on varying optical scattering properties of different sample materials to distinguish one sample material from another.

6. The method as in claim 1 , further comprising processing optical imaging information from OCT device output based on varying optical absorption properties of different sample materials to distinguish one sample material from another.

7. The method as in claim 1 , further comprising processing optical imaging information from OCT device output based on varying optical actuation schemes or OCT imaging schemes or both to distinguish responses from mechanical properties from optical absorption properties.

8. The method as in claim 1 , comprising rendering the OCT imaging beam at an optical wavelength different from an optical wavelength of the optical actuation beam.

9. The method of claim 2 , further including modulating the second beam at the quenching wavelength by a waveform that is 180 degrees out-of-phase with respect to the drive waveform.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the quenching wavelength is greater than the actuation wavelength, thereby having an absorption coefficient larger than that for the actuation wavelength.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the quenching wavelength is selected to quench water absorption for the sample that is aqueous.

12. The method of claim 1 , further including coupling the quenching wavelength to the OCT device using a 50:50 fiber coupler.

13. A system for providing optical actuation and optical sensing, comprising:
an OCT light source configured to provide an optical coherence tomography (OCT) imaging beam into an OCT device positioned to split the OCT imaging beam into an optical sampling beam and an optical reference beam;
a light source generator configured to produce an optical actuation beam comprising a plurality of wavelengths that is coupled along with the optical sampling beam to be directed to a sample to actuate particles or structures in the sample so that the optical imaging captures information of the sample under the optical actuation; wherein the optical actuation beam includes a first beam at an actuation wavelength and a second beam at a quenching wavelength; and
an optical imaging device configured to capture an image of the sample based on optical interferometry.

14. The system of claim 13 , wherein the light source that produces the optical actuation beam is coupled to the system using a fiber coupling or a free-space coupling.

15. The system of claim 13 , further including a wavelength division multiplexer that combines the first beam at the actuation wavelength and the second beam at the quenching wavelength.

16. The system of claim 13 , wherein the first beam at the actuation wavelength is modulated by a drive waveform.

17. The system of claim 16 , wherein the second beam at the quenching wave is modulated by another waveform that is 180 degrees out-of-phase with respect to the drive waveform.

18. The system of claim 13 , wherein the quenching wavelength is greater than the actuation wavelength, thereby having an absorption coefficient larger than that for the actuation wavelength.

19. The system of claim 13 , wherein the quenching wavelength is designed to quench water absorption for the sample that is aqueous.

20. The system of claim 13 , further including a 50:50 fiber coupler that is configured to couple the quenching wavelength with the system.

Assignees

• Univ Cornell

Inventors

• Adie Steven
• Untracht Gavrielle
• Leartprapun Nichaluk

Classifications

• G01B9/02012

  using temporal intensity variation · CPC title

• G01B9/02002

  using two or more frequencies · CPC title

• G01B9/02091 Primary

  Tomographic interferometers, e.g. based on optical coherence · CPC title

• G01B9/02015

  characterised by the beam path configuration · CPC title

• A61B5/0066

  Optical coherence imaging · CPC title