In vivo Mirau-type optical coherence microscopy with symmetrical illumination

Optical coherence microscopy (OCM) is an efficient tool to acquire cellular-resolution morphological images. In our previous study, we presented a Mirau-type OCM which provides both in vivo cross-sectional (B-scan) and en face imaging with a broadband extended source. However, two issues were encountered in B-scan mode. One is the illumination efficiency is low because the illumination area is much larger than the area of interest. The other is the image quality is degraded by linear artifacts. In this report, we use a symmetrical illumination design to improve the illumination efficiency and image quality of B-scan at the same time.