Temperature in Glass Slides: measurement using Phase Sensitive Optical Coherence Tomography and Computational Modeling

Abstract

Phase-sensitive optical coherence tomography (PhS-OCT) enables precise, contactless measurements of temperature-dependent changes in transparent solids. In this work, we used a common-path spectral-domain OCT system to measure optical path differences (OPD) in a 1-mm-thick soda-lime glass slide immersed in a thermal bath. The OPD variation showed a strong linear correlation with temperature in the range of 20-52°C, with an experimentally determined sensitivity of 12.4 +- 1.9 nm/°C. A theoretical model incorporating the thermo-optic and thermal expansion coefficients of glass was proposed to interpret the measurements, and numerical simulations based on finite volume methods were performed to account for spatial temperature gradients in the system. The simulations showed agreement with experimental results within 5% error, validating the approach. Additionally, repeatability tests using lateral scans at constant temperature demonstrated sub-10 nm stability, supporting future extensions to spatially resolved thermal mapping. This technique provides a low-cost platform for localized temperature sensing in solid transparent materials.