V.A. Tougbaev, T.-J. Eom, C.-S. Kee, D.-K. Ko, and J. Lee
Advanced Photonics Research Institute
Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology
Republic of Korea
A challenge is accepted to identify depth resolved optical birefringence of turbid media, particularly human skin using polarization sensitive optical coherence tomography under external environmental perturbations, e.g. under application conditions in clinics and hospitals. A novel concept is advanced and the respective design is elaborated for a system which comprises a source of low-coherence light, a tandem of a readout interferometer and a sensing interferometer with reference and sample arms, and a handheld probe integrated into the sensing interferometer through polarization-maintaining fibers. The system provides fast electro-optic switching over orthogonal polarization components of a measurand light beam at the same output from the sensing interferometer. At said output either of the aforementioned components remains perpendicular to the polarization plane of light in the reference arm. For either of the components the readout interferometer compensates optical path length differences in the sensing interferometer within a given interval of depth in the sample, and evolves spatial fringes which are read out by optoelectronic means without any mechanical scanning in depth. The fringes are devoid of cross-correlation artifacts inasmuch as the readout interferometer recombines coherently the measurand beam and the reference beam having mutually orthogonal polarizations only.
Vitali Arkadievich Tougbaev, Advanced Photonics Research Institute, Research Fellow (Gwangju , South Korea)
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SFM 2006 is dedicated to the memory of Professor Mark L. Katz on the 100 anniversary of his birth and the 60th anniversary of the Chair of Optics and Biomedical Physics founded by him in 1946 in Saratov State University.