phaidra.vetmeduni.ac.at o:3859 DOI 10.1117/1.JBO.29.11.116001 Polarization-insensitive optical coherence tomography using pseudo-depolarized reference light for mitigating birefringence-related image artifacts Optical coherence tomography (OCT) images are prone to image artifacts due to the birefringence of the sample or the optical system when a polarized light source is used for imaging. These artifacts can lead to degraded image quality and diagnostic information.We aim to mitigate these birefringence-related artifacts in OCT images by adding a depolarizer module in the reference arm of the interferometer.We investigated different configurations of liquid crystal patterned retarders as pseudo-depolarizers in the reference arm of OCT setups. We identified the most effective depolarization module layout for polarization artifact suppression for a spectral-domain OCT system based on a Michelson and a Mach-Zehnder interferometer.The performance of our approach was demonstrated in an achromatic quarter-wave plate allowing the selection of a variety of sample polarization states. A substantial improvement of the OCT signal magnitude was observed after placing the optimal depolarizer configuration, reducing the cross-polarization artifact from 5.7 to 1.8 dB and from 8.0 to 1.0 dB below the co-polarized signal for the fiber-based Michelson and Mach-Zehnder setup, respectively. An imaging experiment in the birefringent scleral tissue of a post-mortem alpine marmot eye and a mouse tail specimen further showcased a significant improvement in the detected signal intensity and an enhanced OCT image quality followed by a drastic elimination of the birefringence-related artifacts.Our study presents a simple yet cost-effective technique to mitigate birefringence-related artifacts in OCT imaging. This method can be readily implemented in existing OCT technology and improve the effectiveness of various OCT imaging applications in biomedicine. eng Tomography, Optical Coherence Methods Tomography, Optical Coherence Instrumentation Birefringence Artifacts Animals Mice Equipment Design Interferometry Methods Interferometry Instrumentation Image Processing, Computer-Assisted Methods 2025-02-14T09:44:24.596Z LOMv1.0 Author BEGIN:VCARD VERSION:3.0 N:Varaka;Maria; FN:Maria Varaka X-ORCID:https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1113-5907 END:VCARD BEGIN:VCARD VERSION:3.0 N:Merkle;Conrad W.; FN:Conrad W. Merkle END:VCARD BEGIN:VCARD VERSION:3.0 N:May;Lucas; FN:Lucas May END:VCARD BEGIN:VCARD VERSION:3.0 N:Fanjul-Vélez;Félix; FN:Félix Fanjul-Vélez END:VCARD BEGIN:VCARD VERSION:3.0 N:Worm;Sybren; FN:Sybren Worm X-ORCID:https://orcid.org/0009-0008-3243-4491 END:VCARD BEGIN:VCARD VERSION:3.0 N:Augustin;Marco; FN:Marco Augustin END:VCARD BEGIN:VCARD VERSION:3.0 N:Lee;Hsiang-Chieh; FN:Hsiang-Chieh Lee X-ORCID:https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2976-6195 END:VCARD BEGIN:VCARD VERSION:3.0 N:Wöhrer;Adelheid; FN:Adelheid Wöhrer X-ORCID:https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8435-8189 END:VCARD BEGIN:VCARD VERSION:3.0 N:Glösmann;Martin; FN:Martin Glösmann X-ORCID:https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2094-3247 END:VCARD BEGIN:VCARD VERSION:3.0 N:Baumann;Bernhard; FN:Bernhard Baumann X-ORCID:https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6419-1932 END:VCARD https://w3id.org/kim/hcrt/scheme https://w3id.org/kim/hcrt/text Textdokument Text LOMv1.0 yes https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 application/pdf 5408141 https://phaidra.vetmeduni.ac.at/o:3859 https://phaidra.vetmeduni.ac.at/api/object/o:3859/thumbnail LOMv1.0 discipline