Patent ID: 7688500

Claim:
A test station for performing OCT on the eye, comprising: an ASE source including an amplifying stage including the Yb-doped phosphate glass optical fiber of 10-150 cm in length that generates backward ASE in response to a first pump and a seed stage including a Yb-doped phosphate or silica fiber that generates forward ASE in response to a second pump to seed the amplifying stage, said amplifying stage emitting a composite ASE having a full width half maximum (FWHM) emission bandwidth that spans at least 1020 nm to 1040 nm as a light beam; a beam splitter that splits the beam into a first beam and a second beam, said second beam projected into an eye to image the retina in a reflected scattered beam; a reflector that reflects first beam to act as a reference beam; and a detector that receives the reference beam and the reflected scattered beam from the retina that pass back through the beam splitter and interfere at the detector.