Optical coherence microscopy (OCM) is an imaging modality that is capable of visualizing structural features of biological samples at high resolution based on their scattering properties. Interferometric synthetic aperture microscopy (ISAM) is a newer technique that can overcome the typical dependence between lateral resolution and depth-of-focus of an optical coherence tomography (OCT) imaging system by offering spatially invariant resolution within the whole 3D data set, including regions that are outside of the focal region. Both OCM and ISAM have many potential research and clinical applications. By combining OCM and ISAM, it is possible to visualize an entire 3D volumetric data set with the high resolution normally available only at the focus. Therefore, this combination will yield more detailed information from the observed sample than OCM alone. This combination will also improve the feasibility of the ISAM technique for wider research and clinical applications. This thesis presents the experimental validation and characterization of ISAM applied to high numerical aperture OCM optical imaging. The validation includes the image reconstruction of a tissue phantom containing nano-particles both for OCT and ISAM, and system characterization includes quantitative assessment of the confocal parameter, point spread function, and phase stability measurements. Several potential applications also are examined as a part of this thesis.
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