Analyzing absorption and scattering spectra of micro-scale structures with spectroscopic optical coherence tomography.

We demonstrate the feasibility of characterizing the absorption and scattering spectra of micron-scale structures in a turbid medium using a spectroscopic optical coherence tomography (SOCT) system with a bandwidth of 430-650 nm. SOCT measurements are taken from phantoms composed of fluorescent microspheres. The absorption and scattering spectra are recovered with proper selections of spatial window width in the post processing step. Furthermore, we present an analysis using numerical OCT simulation based on full-wave solutions of the Maxwell's Equation to elucidate the origination of the multiple peaks in the OCT image for a single microsphere. Finally, we demonstrate the possibility of identifying contrast agents concentrated in micron-sized scale in an SOCT image. Two different types of microspheres in gel phantom are discriminated based on their distinguished absorbent feature.