An algorithm was developed to obtain depth-resolved local optical axis in birefringent samples by using conventional polarization-sensitive optical coherence tomography (PSOCT) that uses a single circularly polarized incident light. The round-trip sample Jones matrices were first constructed from the cumulative PSOCT results. An iterative method was then applied to construct the depth-resolved local Jones matrix from which the local optical axis was calculated. The proposed algorithm was validated in samples with homogeneous axis and with depth-varying optical axis. Imaging examples were shown to demonstrate the capability of this method for extracting correct local axis and revealing features not evident in ...

Jones matrix optical coherence tomography can fully characterize depth-resolved polarization properties in tissue. In this report, we described a simple single-camera based implementation of full-range spectral domain Jones matrix optical coherence tomography. The Jones matrix reconstruction algorithm was described in detail and system calibration was demonstrated with comprehensive examples. In addition to the conventional structural image, the images of retardance, optical axis and relative attenuation can be obtained from the measured Jones matrix image. Both in vitro and in vivo image examples were presented to demonstrate the polarization imaging ability of the system

A fast imaging system that can reveal internal sample structures is important for research and quality controls of seeds. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a non-invasive optical imaging technique that can acquire high speed, high resolution depth-resolved images in scattering samples. It has found numerous applications in studying various biological tissues and other materials in vivo. A few studies have reported the use of OCT in studying seed morphology. However, 3D imaging of internal seed structure has not been reported before. In this study, we used a frequency domain OCT system to image tomato seeds. The system has a central ...

Polarization-sensitive optical coherence tomography (PSOCT) has found many applications in imaging birefringence tissue samples. Polarization-sensitive detection is often implemented by utilizing a circularly polarized incident light and detecting the two orthogonal horizontal- and vertical-polarized interference components. However, the obtained optical axes images were inappropriately represented as depth-dependent periodic maps in all reported studies. A detailed analysis confirmed that this misrepresentation was caused by the accumulation of optical retardation with depth. A simple method was proposed to numerically correct this optical-axis calculation. Experimental studies in tendon tissue demonstrated that this method can be applied to map the 2-D optical-axis distributions in ...

Mueller matrices provide a complete characterization of the optical polarization properties of biological tissue. A polarization-sensitive optical coherence tomography (OCT) system was built and used to investigate the optical polarization properties of biological tissues and other turbid media. The apparent degree of polarization (DOP) of the backscattered light was measured with both liquid and solid scattering samples. The DOP maintains the value of unity within the detectable depth for the solid sample, whereas the DOP decreases with the optical depth for the liquid sample. Two-dimensional depth-resolved images of both the Stokes vectors of the backscattered light and the full Mueller ...