Effect of input spectrum on the spectral switch characteristics in a white-light Michelson interferometer

Abstract

We report here a detailed experimental study to demonstrate the effect of source spectral characteristics such as spectral bandwidth (Δλ), peak wavelength (λ < inf > 0 < /inf > ), and shape of the spectrum on the spectral shifts and spec/inftral switches measured due to temporal correlation in a white-light Michelson interferometer operated in the spectral domain. Behavior of the spectral switch characteristics such as the switch position, switch amplitude, and switch symmetry are discussed in detail as a function of optical path difference between the interfering beams. The experimental results are compared with numerical calculations carried out using interference law in the spectral domain with modified source spectral characteristics. On the basis of our results we feel that our study is of critical importance in the selection of source spectral characteristics to further improve the longitudinal resolution or the measurement sensitivity in spectral-domain optical coherence tomography and microscopy. © 2009 Optical Society of America.