I'm looking to build a low-cost OCT setup that is capable of micron-level axial precision. I came into some microscope objectives and linear CCD cameras, but I'm looking for a low-cost light source that could be used. Ideally, these would be 100's of dollars rather than 1000's, which puts SLDs/SLEDs out of my price range. Any suggestions?
I think you have to go with SLD/SLED technology, I do not know of any alternatives that could give you micrometer-range axial resolution at a cheaper price. You can find some SLD under USD$600 at QPhotonics
http://www.qphotonics.com/Superluminescent-diode-40mW-840nm.html
Hello. What would prevent you from taking tugston or even LED sources and correct for the spectrum in post-processing?
Look at this from Dubious: https://www.osapublishing.org/DirectPDFAccess/0E23EAAA-9769-F624-568B6FBDC206058E_340299/oe-24-9-9922.pdf?da=1&id=340299&seq=0&mobile=no
or if link is broken:
High-resolution full-field optical coherence microscopy using a broadband light-emitting diode Jonas Ogien* and Arnaud Dubois
Multi-mode light source is only feasible for parallel detection OCT. Yes, thermal lamp including Tungsten lamp can be used in full-field OCT, but that would be in time domain. If you want to work in spectral domain, you will need a single mode light source, which is rarely low cost. If it has to be cheap, your best chance will be using line shape multi-mode light source to do line-field spectral domain OCT (parallel detection), and you will have to use spatial filter to ensure a single mode in perpendicular direction (parallel to the spectrum plane). It will not be easy as the brightness will be very low.
I did come across this (linked) paper: Chen, Y. et al. "Investigation on Spectral-Domain Optical Coherence Tomography Using a Tungsten Halogen Lamp as Light Source", Optical Review, 2009.
They coupled a broad spectrum thermal source into a 2x2 fiber coupler/splitter and were able to get ~1 µm axial resolution. As Jingwu points out, the power is pretty low...
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10043-009-0006-7
Edgar,
It's not so much the SLD, but the driver and mount. I don't have any of that at present, and so it would cost several thousand to get up and running.