Source: https://www.osapublishing.org/oe/abstract.cfm?uri=oe-15-26-18033
Timestamp: 2019-04-20 06:43:01+00:00

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Multiple scattering is one of the main degrading influences in optical coherence tomography, but to date its presence in an image can only be indirectly inferred. We present a polarization-sensitive method that shows the potential to detect it more directly, based on the degree to which the detected polarization state at any given image point is correlated with the mean state over the surrounding region. We report the validation of the method in microsphere suspensions, showing a strong dependence of the degree of correlation upon the extent to which multiply scattered light is coherently detected. We demonstrate the method’s utility in various tissues, including chicken breast ex vivo and human skin and nailfold in vivo.
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Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of a PS-OCT system. BBS: broadband source, PC: polarization controller, PBS: polarizing (fiber) beamsplitter, and PD: photodetector. Fiber and free-space light propagation are represented with the colors dark blue and partially transparent red, respectively. The linear or elliptical polarization state of the light, for both the reference and sample arms, is indicated in light blue. The light reflected or scattered from the sample arm is decomposed into its co- and cross-polarized components. In the output arm of the interferometer, the reference and sample components are distinguished, and the location at which the states are described by the vectors E R and E S is labelled. After the signals are split into vertical and horizontal polarization components, the resulting scalar fields are indicated.
Fig. 3. Images of a sample composed of 0.51 µm-diameter polystyrene microspheres in aqueous suspension, at concentration 0.28 µm-3. (a) OCT B-scan envelope image, displayed on a decibel color scale. The magnified region shows the structure of the kernel K 1, displayed on a linear grayscale; (b) Map of the parameter ζ versus position. The magnified region shows the structure of the kernel K 2, displayed on a linear grayscale. (The crosshairs scale applies to both magnified regions.) To emphasize the variation in the parameter ζ, the color scale range is from 0.4 - 1 (indicated), so that all values of the parameter below 0.4 are assigned to the same color; (c) Map of the averaged parameter ζ ¯ versus position.
Fig. 6. Chicken breast sample. (a), (b), (c): Displayed images of normalized Stokes parameters Q̂, Û, V̂, respectively, versus sample position; (d), (e): Two-dimensional maps of detected envelope signal (on a decibel color scale), and ζ ¯ parameter, respectively; (f), (g): Mean (over all lateral positions) detected envelope signal, and ζ ¯ parameter, versus optical depth, respectively.
Fig. 7. (a), (b): In vivo OCT B-scan envelope images of human skin for the two detection channels, plotted on a decibel scale. (c): Map of detected envelope signal (on a decibel scale); (d): Map of ζ ¯ parameter; (e): Mean detected envelope signal; (f): Mean ζ ¯ .
Fig. 8. Human nailfold sample: (a) OCT B-scan displaying the detected envelope signal (on a decibel scale); (b) Map of ζ ¯ parameter, versus position; (c) Combination of previous plots, utilizing the intensity information from (a), after decreasing the image brightness, and the hue information from (b).

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