Abstract
Tissue birefringence is an intrinsic marker of potential value for cancer diagnosis. Traditionally, birefringence properties have been studied by using intensity-based formalisms, through the Mueller matrix algebra. On the other hand, the Jones matrix description allows for a direct assessment of the sample's anisotropic response. However, because Jones algebra is based on complex fields, requiring measurements of both phase and amplitude, it is less commonly used. Here we propose a real-time imaging method for measuring Jones matrices by quantitative phase imaging. We combine a broadband phase imaging system with a polarization-sensitive detector to obtain Jones matrices at each point in a megapixel scale image, with near video rate capture speeds. To validate the utility of our approach, we measured standard targets, partially birefringent samples, dynamic specimens, and thinly sliced histopathological tissue.
Highlights
Anisotropic specimens are characterized by a refractive index tensor, which can report on the organization of tissue at the molecular scale
Various methods for measuring the Mueller matrix in tissues have been established in the past [10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18]
This intensity-based formalism does not capture explicitly the phase information in the sample, which plays an important role in many applications such as pathology [19,20,21,22]
Summary
Anisotropic specimens are characterized by a refractive index tensor, which can report on the organization of tissue at the molecular scale (for waves propagation in anisotropic materials, see, e.g., the classical reference by Yariv [1]). Various methods for measuring the Mueller matrix in tissues have been established in the past [10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18] This intensity-based formalism does not capture explicitly the phase information in the sample, which plays an important role in many applications such as pathology [19,20,21,22]. For the first time to our knowledge, an LED-based Jones microscope system, capable of retrieving full Jones matrices at high throughput. This is possible by using a micropolarizer array at the camera plane and dedicated software for automation. Because we use broadband LED illumination, speckles are significantly suppressed [51]
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