Depth profiling of photothermal compound concentrations using phase sensitive optical coherence tomography.

A model that describes the concentration of photothermal (light-to-heat converters) compounds as a function of depth in a turbid medium is developed. The system consists of a pump laser (808 nm modulated at 400 Hz), which heats a photothermal compound, and a phase sensitive spectral domain optical coherence tomography system, which detects the changes in the optical path length of the sample induced by the temperature increase. The model is theoretically derived and the coefficients are empirically determined using solid homogeneous gel phantoms. The model is validated by reconstructing the concentration of a photothermal compound in thick single and double layer solid phantoms.