Digital image correlation-assisted phase-sensitive optical coherence tomography

In this Letter, we introduce a digital image correlationassisted (DIC-assisted) method to tackle the challenges of phase decorrelation and the inability to measure lateral displacement in phase -sensitive optical coherence tomography (PhS-OCT). This DIC-assisted PhS-OCT (DIC-PhS-OCT) first employs DIC to track displacements from the measured amplitude spectra and subsequently uses these tracked displacements to correct supra -pixel displacement offsets in the measured phase spectra. As a result, it effectively mitigates phase decorrelation resulting from both axial and lateral displacements while enabling the acquisition of sub -pixellevel lateral displacements during the DIC computation. Our experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of DIC-PhS-OCT in addressing these challenges while retaining the ultrahigh sensitivity of conventional PhS-OCT. (c) 2024 Optica Publishing Group