Low-cost, portable, rugged optical coherence tomography system

An interferometric system for metrology as well as imaging (e.g., optical coherence tomography or OCT) is described here. The system leverages advancements in telecommunication and device technologies. For example, the reference arm in the interferometric system can be a fiber-optically integrated Faraday rotating mirror. By way of example, but not limitation, typically, the light in the detection arm of the Michelson interferometer can be measured using a Volume phase holographic dispersion grating. By way of example, but not limitation, the dispersed light can be focused on a line-scan camera or multi-line 2-D camera.