Three-dimensional cellular-level imaging using full-field optical coherence tomography

An ultrahigh-resolution full-field optical coherence tomography (OCT) system has been developed for cellular-level imaging of biological media. The system is based on a Linnik interference microscope illuminated with a tungsten halogen lamp, associated with a high-resolution CCD camera. En face tomographic images are produced in real time, with the best spatial resolution ever achieved in OCT (0.7 microm x 0.9 microm, axial x transverse). A shot-noise limited detection sensitivity of 80 dB can be reached with an acquisition time per image of 1 s. Images of animal ophthalmic biopsies and vegetal tissues are shown.