Patent ID: 7227646

Claim:
An optical coherence tomography device comprising: (a) a low-coherence light source; (b) a two-splitting half mirror configured to split light from the low-coherence light source into an object light towards an object to be examined and configured to split light from the low-coherence light source into a reference light; (c) a light delay mechanism configured to delay the reference light by a rotation reflector; (d) a scanning-starting point adjusting mirror configured to cause the reference light from the light delay mechanism to be reflected and returned to the delay mechanism; (e) a plane scanning mechanism configured to scan an inner plane of the object to be examined with the object light; (f) an objective lens; (g) the two-splitting half mirror configured to combine the object light returning from the object to be examined with the reference light returning from the light delay mechanism; and (h) a light detector configured to detect interference light combined at the two-splitting half mirror; (i) wherein the light delay mechanism includes a plurality of pairs of mirrors each comprising a first mirror and a second mirror arranged on the surface of a rotation member, which is rotated in a radial direction so as to cause the reference light to be reflected in a tangential direction of the rotation member; (j) wherein the scanning-starting point adjusting mirror is configured to adjust a scanning-starting point adjusting position in the depth direction so as to correspond to the Z direction, which is the depth direction of the optical axis of the object light; and (k) wherein the plane scanning mechanism has an x-axis scanning mirror and a y-axis scanning mirror, and the x-y plane of the object to be examined is scanned at high speed with the object light towards the object to be examined; and further comprising (l) a dichroic mirror configured to pass substantially all of the light from the low-coherence light source to the object to be examined and configured to reflect a second light from a second light source to a monitor.