In this paper, a white-light full-field optical coherence tomography is developed to provide three-dimensional imaging of the development of a mouse embryo with ultrahigh-resolution. Spatial resolution of $1.8\mathrm{\mu m}\times 1.12\mathrm{\mu m}$ ($\text{transverse}\times \text{axial}$) is achieved owing to the extremely short coherence length of the light source and optimized compensation of dispersion mismatch. A shot-noise limited detection sensitivity of 80 dB is obtained at an acquisition time of 5 seconds per image. To enable in vivo imaging of the mouse embryo development, a homemade incubator is applied to provide appropriate ${\mathrm{CO}}_2$ concentration, temperature, and humidity. An electronic light shutter is used to control the light source in order to avoid unnecessary exposure to the embryo development when the sample is not being scanned. To demonstrate our method, in vivo time series two-dimensional images of the in vitro fertilization process of mouse oocytes at the germinal vesicles stage are presented.

© 2012 Optical Society of America

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