Polarization Maintaining Fiber-Based Depth Encoded Cross-Polarized Optical Coherence Tomography

Cross-polarized optical coherence tomography offers improved imaging contrast of birefringent tissue, such as collagen organization, compared to conventional optical coherence tomography systems. Therefore, it is a promising diagnostic tool for fibrosis and cancer. Existing cross-polarized optical c...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:IEEE access 2022, Vol.10, p.132685-132691
Main Authors: Romodina, Maria N., Blessing, Katharina, Singh, Kanwarpal
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biomedical optical imaging
Collagen
cross-polarized optical coherence tomography
Delay lines
endoscopic imaging
Esophagus
Image contrast
Image enhancement
Medical imaging
Optical Coherence Tomography
Optical fiber dispersion
Optical fiber polarization
Optical imaging
Optical interferometry
Optical polarization
polarization-maintaining fiber
Probes
Tomography
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Summary:Cross-polarized optical coherence tomography offers improved imaging contrast of birefringent tissue, such as collagen organization, compared to conventional optical coherence tomography systems. Therefore, it is a promising diagnostic tool for fibrosis and cancer. Existing cross-polarized optical coherence tomography systems require free-space polarization-controlling elements, which makes these systems bulky. In this work, we present a polarization-maintaining fiber-based minimalistic system for cross-polarization optical coherence tomography suitable for endoscopic applications. A long section of a polarization maintaining fiber is placed in the sample arm and acts as a delay line due to a large group-delay difference for two orthogonally polarized modes of the fiber. Co- and cross-polarized images appear at different depth positions within the image, providing a contrast enhancement due to visualization of the change of the light's polarization state in tissue. We demonstrate system designs for both benchtop and hand-held configurations. The images of a mouse's esophagus ex-vivo and the nailbed of a human volunteer are presented and reveal changes in the light's polarization state due to the presence of collagen in the tissue. The proposed all-fiber-based cross-polarized optical coherence tomography system has a high potential for endoscopy and can be translated to clinical applications.
ISSN:2169-3536
2169-3536
DOI:10.1109/ACCESS.2022.3229974