Optical design of a dynamic focus catheter for high-resolution endoscopic optical coherence tomography.

The optical system design of a dynamic focus endoscopic probe for optical coherence tomography is reported. The dynamic focus capability is based on a liquid lens technology that provides variable focus by changing its curvatures in response to an electric field variation. The effects of a cylindrical exit window present, in practice, for a catheter were accounted for. Degradation in image quality caused by this window was corrected to get diffraction limited imaging performance. As a result, the dynamically focusing catheter with a lateral resolution ranging from 4 to 6 mum through an approximately 5 mm imaging distance was designed without mechanically refocusing the system.