Comparative analysis of full-field OCT and optical transmission tomography

TL;DR

This paper compares full-field OCT and optical transmission tomography, demonstrating their respective advantages in imaging static and dynamic biological samples through a combined optical setup.

Contribution

It introduces a new combined optical setup for direct comparison of FFOCT and OTT, highlighting how illumination tuning optimizes OTT imaging contrast.

Findings

OTT contrast can be enhanced by illumination tuning

Both methods effectively image static and dynamic biological samples

The study discusses effects of sample scattering and thickness

Abstract

This work compares two tomographic imaging technologies, time-domain full-field optical coherence tomography (FFOCT) working in reflection and optical transmission tomography (OTT), using a new optical setup that combines both. We show that, due to forward-scattering properties, the axial sectioning and contrast in OTT can be optimized by tuning illumination. The influence of sample scattering and thickness are discussed. We illustrate the comparison of the two methods in static (morphology) and dynamic (metabolic contrast) regimes using cell cultures, tissues and entire organisms emphasizing the advantages of both approaches.