Sectional Imaging of in vivo Rat Brain Using Short Multimode Fiber Probe

We demonstrate full-field optical coherence microscopy (FF-OCM) using an ultrathin forward-imaging short multimode fiber (SMMF) probe with a core diameter of 50 μm, outer diameter of 125 μm, and length of 7.4 mm, which is a typical graded-index multimode fiber used for optical communications. The axial and lateral resolutions were measured to be 2.14 μm and 2.3 μm, respectively. Inserting the SMMF 4 mm into the cortex of an in vivo rat brain, depths were scanned from a SMMF facet to 147 μm with a field of view of 47 μm. Three-dimensional (3D) OCM images were obtained at depths from about 20 μm to 90 μm. From morphological information of the resliced 3D images and the dependence of the integration of the OCM image signal on the inserted distance, the 3D information of nerve fibers have been demonstrated.