Refractive index tomography of turbid media by bifocal optical coherence refractometry

We demonstrate tomographic imaging of the refractive index of turbid media using bifocal optical coherence refractometry ( BOCR). The technique, which is a variant of optical coherence tomography, is based on the measurement of the optical pathlength difference between two foci simultaneously present in a medium of interest. We describe a new method to axially shift the bifocal optical pathlength that avoids the need to physically relocate the objective lens or the sample during an axial scan, and present an experimental realization based on an adaptive liquid- crystal lens. We present experimental results, including video clips, which demonstrate refractive index tomography of a range of turbid liquid phantoms, as well as of human skin in vivo. (C) 2003 Optical Society of America.