Multimodal non-contact photoacoustic and OCT imaging with galvanometer scanning

In this paper we present multimodal non-contact photoacoustic and optical coherence tomography (OCT) imaging using a galvanometer scanner. Photoacoustic signals are acquired without contact on the surface of a specimen using an interferometric technique. The interferometer is realized in a fiber-optic network using a fiber laser at 1550 nm as source. In the same fiber-optic network a spectral-domain OCT system is realized, using a broadband light source at 1300 nm. Light from the fiber laser and the OCT source are multiplexed into the same fiber and the same objective is used for both imaging modalities. Fast non-contact photoacoustic and OCT imaging is demonstrated by scanning the detection spot utilizing a galvanometer scanner. Multimodal photoacoustic and OCT imaging is shown on agarose phantoms. As the same fiber network and optical components are used for non-contact photoacoustic and OCT imaging the obtained images are co-registered intrinsically.