Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a novel, depth resolved biomedical imaging technique, providing highresolution, cross-sectional
and three-dimensional images of tissue microstructure. The application of OCT systems based on rapidly wavelength swept, narrow
band light sources, referred to as “swept source OCT” or “optical frequency domain imaging”, offers several potential advantages
compared to high speed OCT systems based on fast spectrometers. The advent of Fourier domain mode locked (FDML) lasers as
light sources for swept source OCT enabled high imaging speeds of up to 370.000 lines or A-scans per second, combined with
good phase stability and long ranging depths.
In this paper, ophthalmic and other biomedical OCT imaging applications of FDML lasers demonstrated so far will be discussed
and new technological developments for future high performance OCT systems are described. First results towards the future
technological integration of functional extensions into fast swept source OCT systems will be given.
Keywords Optical coherence tomography - tunable laser - optical frequency domain imaging - imaging systems - Fourier domain mode locking