Patent ID: 8427653

Claim:
A spectral domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) method comprising: performing a first measurement and a second measurement, each measurement comprising: illuminating an object region with measuring light; superimposing measuring light returned from the object region with reference light; spectrally dispersing the superimposed light; and detecting intensities of plural different spectral portions of the spectrally dispersed light; wherein during the first measurement, the measuring light illuminating the object region is spectrally distributed according to a first spectrum; and during the second measurement, the measuring light illuminating the object region is spectrally distributed according to a second spectrum, and wherein a first spectral width of the first spectrum is at least 10% greater than a second spectral width of the second spectrum; wherein the first spectral width is determined to be a minimum of a difference between a first upper wavelength and a first lower wavelength; wherein during the first measurement, an intensity of the measuring light having wavelengths between the first lower wavelength and the first upper wavelength amounts to 90% of a total intensity of the measuring light; wherein the second spectral width is determined to be a minimum of a difference between a second upper wavelength and a second lower wavelength; wherein during the second measurement, an intensity of the measuring light having wavelengths between the second lower wavelength and the second upper wavelength amounts to 90% of a total intensity of the measuring light; and wherein a width of a wavelength range comprised in each of the spectral portions during the first measurement is greater than a width of a wavelength range comprised in each of the spectral portions during the second measurement.