Structured interference optical coherence tomography.

We developed a structured interference optical coherence tomography (SIOCT) to enhance the lateral resolution beyond the diffraction limit. A sinusoidal pattern is created on the interferometric beam with the reference intensity temporally modulated. In the Fourier domain, the high spatial frequencies are shifted into the detectable range, which enhances the lateral resolution beyond the diffraction limit by a factor of 2. The lateral resolution of SIOCT was characterized in our study as ~5.5 μm, surpassing the diffraction limit ~9.6 μm as in conventional Fourier-domain optical coherence tomography. SIOCT was demonstrated on phantoms and ex vivo adipose tissues.