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Novel input polarisation independent endoscopic cross‐polarised optical coherence tomography probe
Author(s) -
Blessing Katharina,
Schirmer Judith,
Sharma Gargi,
Singh Kanwarpal
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
journal of biophotonics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.877
H-Index - 66
eISSN - 1864-0648
pISSN - 1864-063X
DOI - 10.1002/jbio.202000134
Subject(s) - optical coherence tomography , birefringence , optics , tomography , materials science , coherence (philosophical gambling strategy) , physics , quantum mechanics
Lead by the original idea to perform noninvasive optical biopsies of various tissues, optical coherence tomography found numerous medical applications within the last two decades. The interference based imaging technique opens the possibility to visualise subcellular morphology up to an imaging depth of 3 mm and up to micron level axial and lateral resolution. The birefringence properties of the tissue are visualised with enhanced contrast using polarisation sensitive or cross‐polarised optical coherence tomography (OCT) techniques. Although, it requires strict control over the polarisation states, resulting in several polarisation controlling elements. In this work, we propose a novel input‐polarisation independent endoscopic system based on cross‐polarised OCT. We tested the feasibility of our approach by measuring the polarisation change from a quarter‐wave plate for different rotational angles. Further performance tests reveal a lateral resolution of 30 μ m and a sensitivity of 103 dB. Images of the human nail bed and cow muscle tissue demonstrate the potential of the system to measure structural and birefringence properties of the tissue endoscopically.