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.

Keywords (eng)

Tomography, Optical Coherence MethodsTomography, Optical Coherence InstrumentationBirefringenceArtifactsAnimalsMiceEquipment DesignInterferometry MethodsInterferometry InstrumentationImage Processing, Computer-Assisted Methods

Type (eng)

journal article

Language

[eng]

Persistent identifier

https://phaidra.vetmeduni.ac.at/o:3859

DOI

10.1117/1.JBO.29.11.116001

Is in series

Title (eng)

Journal of Biomedical Optics

Volume