Birefringence imaging of biological tissue by spectral domain polarization sensitive optical coherence tomography

Abstract

A spectral domain Polarization sensitive optical coherence tomography (SDPS-OCT) system has been developed to acquire depth images of biological tissues such as porcine tendon, rabbit eye. The Stocks vectors (I, Q, U, and V) of the backscattered light from the biological tissues have been reconstructed. Further, the phase retardation and polarization degree between the two orthogonal polarizing states have been computed. Reconstructed images, i.e. birefringence images, from Stokes parameters, retardation and polarization degree of biological tissues show significant local variations in the polarization state. And the birefringence contrast of biological tissue possibly changes by some outside force. In addition, the local thickness of the birefringence layer determined with our system is significant. The results presented show SDPS-OCT is a potentially powerful technique to investigate tissue structural properties on the basis of the fact that any fibrous structure with biological tissues can influence the polarization state of light.