Improvement in measurements of hydroxyapatite layers by hybrid high dynamic range image processing in white-light interferometry

Abstract Hydroxyapatite (HA) is one of the most common natural biomaterials widely used in medical applications. Full-field optical coherence tomography can be used to characterise the internal structures of this material by detection of multiple fringe envelope signals. However, the semi-translucent nature of HA and complex spongy aspect is a challenge. We propose here the “IMPROVE-Protocol”, combining a hybrid high dynamic range technique, image averaging and dark and flat corrections to study HA. The resulting increase in the SNR and improvement in the power of detection of the system allows normally unmeasured features to be observed, down to sub-µm in size.