High-speed adaptive interferometer for optical coherence-domain reflectometry through turbid media

Two-wave mixing in a dynamic holographic film acts as the adaptive beam combiner in a short-coherence interferometer that performs optical coherence-domain reflectometry (OCDR) through turbid media. This approach combines the high spatial resolution and sensitivity of coherence-domain reflectometry with photorefractive quantum-well-based adaptive homodyne detection. A depth resolution of 28 p,m and penetration through 16 mean free paths in a turbid medium have been obtained in this adaptive OCDR application. (C) 2003 Optical Society of America