Fourier-domain digital holographic optical coherence imaging of living tissue.

Digital holographic optical coherence imaging is a full-frame coherence-gated imaging approach that uses a CCD camera to record and reconstruct digital holograms from living tissue. Recording digital holograms at the optical Fourier plane has advantages for diffuse targets compared with Fresnel off-axis digital holography. A digital hologram captured at the Fourier plane requires only a 2D fast Fourier transform for numerical reconstruction. We have applied this technique for the depth-resolved imaging of rat osteogenic tumor multicellular spheroids and acquired cross-section images of the anterior segment and the retinal region of a mouse eye. A penetration depth of 1.4 mm for the tumor spheroids was achieved.