Ambiguity of optical coherence tomography measurements due to rough surface scattering.

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) images are frequently interpreted in terms of layers (for example, of tissue) with the boundary defined by a change in refractive index. Real boundaries are rough compared with the wavelength of light, and in this paper we show that this roughness has to be taken into account in interpreting the images. We give an example of the same OCT image obtained from two quite different objects, one smooth compared to the optical wavelength, and the other rough.