PhD on Optical Coherence Tomography in Visible

可见光光学相干断层扫描博士

• 批准号: 2774384
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of Kent
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2022 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2774384
• 关键词: PhD; Optical; Coherence; Tomography; Visible

I am proposing to use the PhD position to research and develop solutions to overcome some of the challenges faced by Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) instruments when driven by optical sources emitting in the visible (VIS) spectral range, for imaging the human eye (more specifically the retina), in-vivo. The main advantage of developing VIS-OCT instruments is due to their diagnostic potential allowed by their improved lateral and axial resolution when imaging the eye compared to the technology currently used with near-infrared light sources.One of the challenges to be faced with using a visible range light source is the attenuation of light when the OCT imaging technique is applied in vivo and in particular, the eye. The biological tissue light must travel across the eye to reach the retina, is characterised by a quite large optical attenuation coefficient, and therefore the number of photons reaching the retina is low, and subsequently the images obtained are much poorer than those obtained using near-infrared light sources. Image quality is also affected by low levels of back-scattering of visible light on tissue, and the fact that a lower limit of optical power from the light source entering the eye is imposed in comparison to a near-infrared source which contributes to a large noise level in the OCT images obtained.Another aspect of the imaging technique which would be addressed is the way the image quality is determined by the use of camera-based OCT systems. Swept source OCT gives a better range of axial imaging in comparison to camera-based due to their narrow instantaneous coherence length. However swept sources are not available for the visible range and therefore this is an area where improvements need to be made to help the potential for visible light OCT to be used in new diagnostic technology.Addressing these issues to improve visible light OCT for biomedical imaging would enable us to produce high resolution images of the human retina (of the static tissue) and OCT angiography images of the micro-vasculature of the back of the eye. Researching the imaging technique would also allow development of an imaging instrument which is easier to build than those which do not use a visible light source, as well as the imaging method to provide potential for new spectroscopic techniques as a result.

我建议利用博士职位来研究和开发解决方案，以克服光学相干断层扫描 (OCT) 仪器在由可见光 (VIS) 光谱范围内发射的光源驱动时所面临的一些挑战，用于对人眼进行成像（更多特别是视网膜），体内。开发 VIS-OCT 仪器的主要优势在于，与目前使用的近红外光源技术相比，它们在对眼睛成像时具有更高的横向和轴向分辨率，从而具有诊断潜力。使用 VIS-OCT 仪器面临的挑战之一可见光范围光源是当OCT成像技术应用于体内，特别是眼睛时的光衰减。生物组织的光线必须穿过眼睛才能到达视网膜，其特点是光学衰减系数相当大，因此到达视网膜的光子数量很少，因此获得的图像比使用近红外技术获得的图像差很多。红外光源。图像质量还受到组织上可见光低水平反向散射的影响，并且与近红外光源相比，进入眼睛的光源的光功率较低，这会产生很大的光功率。所获得的 OCT 图像中的噪声水平。成像技术的另一个需要解决的问题是通过使用基于相机的 OCT 系统来确定图像质量的方式。与基于相机的扫描源 OCT 相比，由于其瞬时相干长度较窄，扫频源 OCT 可以提供更好的轴向成像范围。然而，扫频源不适用于可见光范围，因此这是一个需要改进的领域，以帮助发挥可见光 OCT 在新诊断技术中的应用潜力。解决这些问题以改进生物医学成像的可见光 OCT使我们能够生成人类视网膜（静态组织）的高分辨率图像和眼睛后部微脉管系统的 OCT 血管造影图像。研究成像技术还可以开发出比不使用可​​见光源的成像仪器更容易制造的成像仪器，以及成像方法，从而为新的光谱技术提供潜力。