We demonstrate a system for measuring the ocular axial length (AL) with high sensitivity and high speed using spectral-domain low-coherence interferometry (SD-LCI). To address the limit in measuring such a large range by using SD-LCI, we propose a full-range method to recognize the positive and negative depths. The reference arm length is changed synchronously with the shift of the focal point of the probing beam. The system provides a composite depth range that is sufficient to cover the whole eye. We demonstrate the performance of the presented system by measuring the ALs of five volunteers. This system can provide the A-scan ocular biometric assessment of the corneal thickness and AL in 0.1 s.
We demonstrated a method for measurement of central corneal thickness(CCT) with a sub-micrometer sensitivity using a spectral domain optical coherence tomography system without needing a super broad bandwidth light source. By combining the frequency and phase components of Fourier transform, the method is capable of measurement of a large dynamic range with a high sensitivity. Absolute phases are retrieved by comparing the correlations between the detected and simulated interference fringes. The phase unwrapping ability of the present method was quantitatively tested by measuring the displacement of a piezo linear stage. The human CCTs of six volunteers were measured to verify its clinical application. It provides a potential tool for clinical diagnosis and research applications in ophthalmology.