Artefact-removal algorithms for Fourier domain Quantum Optical Coherence Tomography

TL;DR

This paper introduces two novel algorithms for removing artefacts in Fourier-domain Quantum Optical Coherence Tomography, enhancing image clarity by processing joint spectrum data, with demonstrated effectiveness on simulated data.

Contribution

The paper presents the first artefact-removal algorithms specifically designed for Fourier-domain Q-OCT, addressing a key limitation of the modality.

Findings

Algorithms successfully reduce artefacts in simulated data

Theoretical analysis of algorithm performance and limitations

Discussion of practical constraints for experimental implementation

Abstract

Quantum Optical Coherence Tomography (Q-OCT) is a non-classical equivalent of Optical Coherence Tomography and is able to provide a twofold axial resolution increase and immunity to resolution-degrading dispersion. The main drawback of Q-OCT are artefacts which are additional elements that clutter an A-scan and lead to a complete loss of structural information for multilayered objects. Whereas there are successful methods for artefact removal in Time-domain Q-OCT, no such scheme has been devised for Fourier-domain Q-OCT (Fd-Q-OCT), although the latter modality - through joint spectrum detection - outputs a lot of useful information on both the system and the imaged object. Here, we propose two algorithms which process a Fd-Q-OCT's joint spectrum into an artefact-free A-scan. We present the theoretical background of these algorithms and show their performance on computer-generated data. The limitations of both algorithms with regards to the experimental system and the imaged object are discussed.