US Patent 7557931 Optical coherence tomography method

Low coherence light is divided into measuring light and reference light. The measuring light is collected to be projected onto an object of measurement. Intensities of the reflected light in a plurality of positions in the direction of depth are detected by carrying out a Fourier analysis on each channeled spectrum obtained by decomposing the detected interference light into frequency components. The optical path length of the reference light is stepwise changed to adjust the optical path length within the focusing range of the measuring light. A plurality of pieces of data representing the intensity of the reflected light are obtained in a plurality of positions in the direction of depth each time the position of the focusing range changes, and data on the position in the direction of depth where the measuring light is in the focusing range is extracted out of the pieces of data.