Nonlinear optical contrast enhancement for optical coherence tomography

Abstract

We present a new interferometric technique for measuring Coherent Anti-Stokes Raman Scattering (CARS) and Second Harmonic Generation (SHG) signals. Heterodyne detection is employed to increase the sensitivity in both CARS and SHG signal detection, which can also be extended to different coherent processes. The exploitation of the mentioned optical nonlinearities for molecular contrast enhancement in Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) is presented. Numerical simulations for both coherent nonlinear processes are performed in order to determine the properties of the signal expected at the exit of the described nonlinear interferometer.