US Patent 7952723 Optical coherence tomography apparatus

An optical coherence tomography apparatus includes a light source for generating a low-coherent light beam, which is split into a probe light beam toward the object and a reference light beam toward a reference optical path. The probe light beam is swept one-dimensionally at a predetermined frequency. An interference light beam is produced by interference between the probe light beam from the object and the reference light beam that has traveled along the reference optical path. The interference light beam is re-swept in the same direction and at the same frequency as the probe light beam. A two-dimensional image-capturing device detects the re-swept interference light beam at a frame rate corresponding to the light beam sweeping frequency and produces a video signal, which is processed to provide reflection intensity information of an interior of an object to be measured. Since the two-dimensional image-capturing means is employed and interference information is obtained using low-speed beam sweeping and re-sweeping means, a scanning optical system can be straightforwardly constructed.