Liquid Lens Enabled Optical Coherence Microscope With Gabor Fusion

A custom optical microscope with an integrated liquid lens to enable an extended depth imaging in biological tissue has been fabricated and shown to provide subcellular resolution using Gabor image fusion in an optical coherence tomography setup. In this paper, we report on the development and assessment path of this technology over the last few years. Specifically, we report on the optical design as well as the MTF prediction and experimental measurements of the new optical microscope head. The microscope head was integrated in a custom optical coherence microscopy setup that is presented. Images of an African frog tadpole, ex vivo human breast excised tissue, and in vivo skin images, acquired with the integrated instrument, are presented. © 2010 Copyright SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering