Combined system of optical coherence tomography and fluorescence spectroscopy based on double-cladding fiber

Abstract

We report the development of an all-fiber multimodal system, based on a double-cladding fiber (DCF) and related devices, suitable for simultaneous measurements of optical coherence tomography (OCT) and fluorescence spectroscopy (FS). The DCF together with a DCF coupler and a single-body DCF lens has assisted in the realization of a multimodal but single-unit probe for the combined system. The DCF lens allowed simultaneous focusing of input beams for OCT and FS and also the effective collection of both signal beams from a sample. The DCF coupler could extract the OCT signal via the core channel and the FS signal through the cladding channel. The OCT image and the fluorescence spectra of a plant tissue were then simultaneously measured to validate the performance of the proposed multimodal system. (C) 2008 Optical Society of America