Open AccessPolarization maintaining fiber based ultra-high resolution spectral domain polarization sensitive optical coherence tomography
Author(s) -
Erich Götzinger,
Bernhard Baumann,
Michael Pircher,
Christoph K. Hitzenberger
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
optics express
Language(s) - Uncategorized
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.394
H-Index - 271
ISSN - 1094-4087
DOI - 10.1364/oe.17.022704
Subject(s) - optics , optical coherence tomography , polarization (electrochemistry) , orthogonal polarization spectral imaging , materials science , stokes parameters , optical fiber , physics , scattering , laser , chemistry
We present a new ultra high resolution spectral domain polarization sensitive optical coherence tomography (PS-OCT) system based on polarization maintaining (PM) fibers. The method transfers the principles of our previous bulk optic PS-OCT systems to a fiberized setup. The phase shift between the orthogonal polarization states travelling in the two orthogonal modes of the PM fiber is compensated by software in post processing. Thereby, the main advantage of our bulk optics setups, i.e. the use of only a single input polarization state to simultaneously acquire reflectivity, retardation, optic axis orientation, and Stokes vector, is maintained. The use of a broadband light source of 110 nm bandwidth provides improved depth resolution and smaller speckle size. The latter is important for improved resolution of depolarization imaging. We demonstrate our instrument for high-resolution PS-OCT imaging of the healthy human retina.