Optical coherence tomography (OCT) provides high resolution, cross-sectional image of internal microstructure of biological tissue. We use the Finite-Difference Time-Domain method (FDTD) to analyze the data acquired by OCT, which can help us reconstruct the refractive index of the biological tissue. We calculate the refractive index tomography and try to match the simulation with the data acquired by OCT. Specifically, we try to reconstruct the structure of melanin, which has complex refractive indices and is the key component of human pigment system. The results indicate that better reconstruction can be achieved for homogenous sample, whereas the reconstruction is degraded for samples with fine structure or with complex interface. Simulation reconstruction shows structures of the Melanin that may be useful for biomedical optics applications.

Date Published: 2 March 2015
PDF: 5 pages
Proc. SPIE 9328, Imaging, Manipulation, and Analysis of Biomolecules, Cells, and Tissues XIII, 93281T (2 March 2015); doi: 10.1117/12.2079309

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 9328:
Imaging, Manipulation, and Analysis of Biomolecules, Cells, and Tissues XIII
Daniel L. Farkas; Dan V. Nicolau; Robert C. Leif, Editor(s)