Patent ID: 8666209

Claim:
A method for imaging a target, comprising: directing probe light from a proximal terminal of a fiber to a distal terminal of the fiber to interact with a target at or near the distal terminal of the fiber; controlling optical polarization of the probe light to be at one of two different polarization directions when delivered to the target so that the probe light exits the fiber towards the target along a first beam direction when in a first polarization direction of the two different polarization directions and along a second, different beam direction when in a second polarization direction of the two different polarization directions; controlling the optical polarization of the probe light at the target in the two different polarization directions at different times, respectively, to obtain optical image information of the target in a first region of the target when the probe light is controlled to be at the first polarization direction and to obtain optical image information of the target in a second region of the target when the probe light is controlled to be at the second polarization direction; adjusting a position of the distal terminal of the fiber relative to the target to obtain optical images of the target at different positions along a longitudinal direction of the fiber; operating a light director to direct the probe light from a light source into the proximal terminal of the fiber which guides the probe light to the distal terminal of the fiber at a target location in the first or second region of the target; directing a first portion of the probe light at the distal terminal of the fiber to propagate away from the target location towards the proximal terminal o of the fiber without reaching the target location back into the fiber; directing a second portion of the probe light at the distal terminal of the fiber to exit the fiber to reach the target location; collecting reflected light from the target location caused by illumination of the second portion to direct the reflected light in the fiber to overlap with the first portion of the probe light and to co-propagate with the first portion of the probe light along the fiber towards proximal terminal of the fiber, wherein the reflected light from the target location carries optical image information of the target location; using the light director to output light from the proximal terminal of the fiber, which includes the first portion of the probe light and the reflected light from the target location, along a common optical path to reach a detection module; and operating the detection module to process the output light to obtain the optical image information of the target location.