Single A-Line Method for Fast Sample-Structure-Nondependent Dispersion Compensation of FD-OCT

Here we proposed a single A-line sample-structure-nondependent (SSNd) dispersion detection and compensation method for Fourier-domain optical coherence tomography (FD-OCT), without need for acquiring and processing B-scan data. A new FD-OCT dispersion mismatch index, based on the line slope of the bright line in the A-line spectrogram, has been presented in the proposed method. With the new dispersion mismatch index, the proposed single A-line method can fast and visually detect the dispersion mismatch states of FD-OCT setup and perform the SSNd dispersion compensation, just using a single A-line. Experimental results of multiple samples demonstrated the advantages and convenience of the proposed method, and also proved that the proposed method can be used to analyze the relation of OCT imaging and optical path difference between the sample and reference arms.