2 METHODS FOR FAST COHERENCE TOMOGRAPHY AND TOPOMETRY

Coherence tomo- and topography have great potential in the building of optical measuring tools for a lot of different technical and biologic al applications. One major limiting property of scanning coherence met hods is their data acquisition time. In this paper we describe two met hods for increasing the measuring speed; one for an analogue and one f or a digital preprocessing sensor. In particular, we present a novel s canning device for an analogue 1-D sensor which enables measurements w ith a very fast vertical scanning rate to be made. A periodical change of the optical path difference of up to 3 mm and frequencies of 1200 Hz and more can be achieved by using a resonant scanner. We describe a n optical fibre setup using this novel scanner in combination with a h omemade low cost light source which is most appropriate for optical fi bre coherence application.