Dark-field optical coherence microscopy

Abstract

Dark-field illumination is known to enhance scattering contrast in optical microscopy. We combined this concept with Fourier domain optical coherence microscopy (OCM). The detection and illumination paths are decoupled, and only the scattered light originating from the sample generates the tomogram signal, whereas any specular reflection is highly suppressed. We analyze and discuss this dark-field OCM concept and present its superior imaging quality on live cell samples. © 2010 Optical Society of America OCIS codes: 180.1655, 170.1530, 120.5820. The imaging of label-free cell samples has long since propelled the development of novel imaging techniques. Because of the high transparence of the cell, imaging in the transmission mode has received the most attention. Many recent approaches aim at a quantitative evaluation of the spatially resolved susceptibility of the cell [1,2]. In contrast, spectral domain optical coherence phase microscopy [3,4] works in the reflection mode. It uses the high NA of optical coherence microscopy (OCM