Handbook of Biomedical Optics

Optical Coherence Tomography: Introduction and Theory 265

where z = z

0

+ z (with z

0

an oset constant) and dz = dz.

Incorporating the above results, the intensity of the spectral

interferometric signal becomes

I k S k a z e z AC a z

j knz

( ) ( )

ˆ

( ) [

ˆ

( )]e= + +

−

−∞

∞

−

∫

1

1

4

2

d

jj kn z

z

2 ( )

d

−∞

∞

∫

e second and the third terms are actually Fourier transforms

of the scattering amplitude â(z) and of the autocorrelation term

AC[â(z)] over the variable z. By using the Fourier transform scal-

ing property, the interferogram can be rewritten as

I k S k a z e z

jknz

( ) ( )

ˆ

( )

( )

= + +

−

−∞

∞

∫

1

1

2

time scale



d

44

2

AC a z e z

jknz

[

ˆ

( )]

( )−

−∞

∞

∫

time scale ...