The cross-correlation in spectral domain based Doppler optical coherence tomography

sWe propose a cross-correlation method which is based on the cross-correlation of two adjacent A-scans of interferogram fringe for imaging the velocities of the blood flowing in vessels. The method was tested by measurements of the velocities of flowing particles within a glass capillary with known mean velocities. Mean standard deviations of flow velocities of the particles determined through the proposed method were compared to those by the conventional phase resolved method. In vivo imaging of a mouse ear was performed and the Doppler flow velocity maps were reconstructed by both methods. The experimental results demonstrated that the proposed method can significantly suppress the phase noises caused by phase instabilities and improve the signal to noise ratio of blood flow map.