Motion compensated fiber-optic confocal microscope based on a common-path optical coherence tomography distance sensor

A motion compensated fiber-optic confocal microscope system is demonstrated by utilizing a Fourier domain common-path optical coherence tomography (FD-CP-OCT) distance sensor and a high-speed linear motor at the distal end of a fiber-optic confocal microscope imaging probe. The fiber-optic confocal microscope is based on a 460 μm diameter imaging bundle with 10 K cores. The fiber bundle was terminated with a gradient index lens system. Using one-dimensional Ascan data of CP-OCT, the distance deviation of the target from the focal plane of the probe was monitored and motion compensated at the rate of 840 Hz, for a confocal microscopic imaging frame rate of 1fps and was 200 × 200 pixels in size, with a distance error less than 5 μm.