Patent ID: 8169618

Claim:
An optical structure measuring apparatus comprising: an optical probe having a thin and long sheath whose distal end is closed, an n-channel waveguide device in which n is an integer of three or more and which is inserted and fixed in the sheath along the longitudinal axis of the sheath so as to guide light beams, an irradiating device which is provided in a distal end portion of the sheath and which deflects a light beam emitted from each of the channels of the n-channel waveguide device in a radial direction about the longitudinal axis of the sheath to irradiate a measuring object with the deflected light beam, a rotating device which rotates the irradiating device about the longitudinal axis, and a forward/backward moving device which moves forward and backward the n-channel waveguide device and the irradiating device in the direction along the longitudinal axis; a light source device which emits a light beam having wavelengths in a wide band; a branching device which branches the light beam from the light source device to a measuring light beam and a reference light beam; a branching and light guiding device which branches the measuring light beam to each of the channels of the n-channel waveguide device to allow the branched light beam to be guided by each of the channels of the n-channel waveguide device; an n-channel interference light detecting device which detects an interference light beam obtained, for each of the channels of the n-channel waveguide device, by making the reference light beam interfere with a return light beam as the measuring light beam which is returned from the measuring object by being guided by each of the channels of the n-channel waveguide device via the branching and light guiding device; an n-channel interference signal generating device which generates an interference signal representing a signal intensity in the depth direction of the measuring object on the basis of each of the interference light beams detected by the n-channel interference light beam detecting device; and a tomographic structure image generating device which generates a tomographic structure image of the measuring object on the basis of each of the interference signals generated by the n-channel interference signal generating device.