Polarization sensitive optical coherence tomography (PS-OCT) is a functional extension of optical coherence tomography (OCT) which reveals the birefringent properties of a biological sample. Several reports on PS-OCT have demonstrated its ability to measure and image birefringence distribution in different tissues. We compare different methods, based on the use of one or more input polarization state. The image quality for single input state methods is better than if two input states are used, however, the latter methods are preferable if fiber interferometers are used or if measurements are to be performed trough superficial birefringent layers. The different image quality is probably due to a speckle effect.

Date Published: 1 July 2004
PDF: 5 pages
Proc. SPIE 5316, Coherence Domain Optical Methods and Optical Coherence Tomography in Biomedicine VIII, (1 July 2004); doi: 10.1117/12.531315

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 5316:
Coherence Domain Optical Methods and Optical Coherence Tomography in Biomedicine VIII
Valery V. Tuchin; Joseph A. Izatt; James G. Fujimoto, Editor(s)