A full quantitative evaluation of the depolarization of light may serve to assess concentrations of depolarizing particles in the retinal pigment epithelium and to investigate their role in retinal diseases in the human eye. Optical coherence tomography and optical frequency domain imaging use spatial incoherent averaging to compute depolarization. Depolarization depends on accurate measurements of the polarization states at the receiver but also on the polarization state incident upon and within the tissue. Neglecting this dependence can result in artifacts and renders depolarization measurements vulnerable to birefringence in the system and in the sample. In this work, we discuss the challenges associated with using a single input polarization state and traditional depolarization metrics such as the degree‐of‐polarization and depolarization power. We demonstrate quantitative depolarization measurements based on Jones vector synthesis and polar decomposition using fiber‐based polarization‐sensitive optical frequency domain imaging of the retinal pigment epithelium in a human eye. 相似文献
We combined cross‐polarization optical coherence tomography (CP OCT) and non‐linear microscopy based on second harmonic generation (SHG) and two‐photon‐excited fluorescence (2PEF) to assess collagen and elastin fibers and other vascular structures in the development of atherosclerosis, including identification of vulnerable plaques, which remains an important clinical problem and imaging application. CP OCT's ability to visualize tissue birefringence and cross‐scattering adds new information about the microstructure and composition of the plaque. However its interpretation can be ambiguous, because backscattering contrast may have a similar appearance to the birefringence related fringes. Our results represent a step towards minimally invasive characterization and monitoring of different stages of atherosclerosis, including vulnerable plaques. CP OCT image of intimal thickening in the human coronary artery. The dark stripe in the cross‐polarization channel (arrow) is a polarization fringe related to the phase retardation between two eigen polarization states. It is histologically located in the area of the lipid pool, however this stripe is a polarization artifact, rather than direct visualization of the lipid pool.
An optical method for measuring the birefringence of muscle fibers was developed, which is realized on an automated Linnick interferometer microscope equipped with a laser. It was shown that the method has some advantages over the methods based on measurements of the intensity of light passing through a crossed polarizer, an analyzer, and a fiber (light polarized microscopy). The method involves direct phase measurements of optical path length at the parallel and perpendicular orientations of the polarization plane of probing radiation. The phase image is reconstructed automatically from interferograms with the use of the four-frame phase-shifting algorithm. The phase images of one and the same central part of the fiber at different orientations of the polarization plane represent two-dimensional numerical maps of the optical path length. The subtraction of these images gives a two-dimensional map of the phase shift, which includes information about the birefringence of the fiber. A formula for birefringence measurements was deduced, which has a certain advantage in comparison to that used earlier in that it does not take into account the thickness of a fiber that depends on the measurement point. The birefringence is normalized to a value of the half sum of phases, which are measured separately in the course of the experiment. 相似文献
We propose a subwavelength quarter-waveplate composed of four L-shaped nanoparticles that act as optical nanoantennas and
investigate its optical properties using the finite-difference time-domain method. When polarization of the incident beam
is parallel to one arm of the antenna, polarization of the scattering light rotates 45° with respect to that of the incident
beam due to the symmetry of the L-shaped nanoantennas. Phase retardation is generated by changing the arm length of the antennas.
The influence of the distance between the L-shaped nanoantennas on the far-field radiation is also discussed. 相似文献
We present an experimental and theoretical study of the phenomenon of edge birefringence that appears near boundaries of transparent objects which are observed with high extinction and high resolution polarized light microscopy. As test objects, thin flakes of isotropic KCl crystals were immersed in media of various refractive indices. The measured retardation near crystal edges increased linearly with both the crystal thickness (tested between 0.3 and 1 micron), and the difference in refractive indices n between crystal (n = 1.49) and immersion liquids (n between 1.36 and 1.62). The specific edge birefringence, i.e., the retardation per thickness and per refractive index difference, is 0.029 on the high refractive index side of the boundary and -0.015 on the low refractive index side. The transition through zero birefringence specifies the position of a boundary at a much higher precision than predicted by the diffraction limit of the optical setup. The theoretical study employs a ray tracing procedure modeling the change in phase and polarization of rays passing through the specimen. We find good agreement between the model calculations and the experimental results indicating that edge birefringence can be attributed to the change in polarization of light that is refracted and reflected by dielectric interfaces. 相似文献
The present article describes the development of a technique, applied to paraffin-embedded tissues, which uses three different wavelengths of monochromatic light (λ1 = 445 nm, λ2 = 540 nm and λ3 = 660 nm) for the measures of the degree of polarization, degree of linear polarization, degree of circular polarization and birefringence, all obtained from measurements of Stokes parameters by using polarized light. The goal of this study was to detect changes in developing embryonic mouse eye when pregnant mice fed diets without folic acid for variable periods compared with a healthy control group. We present a biomedical diagnostic technique based on polarized light detection applied to paraffin-embedded tissues to visualize the structural damage to aid us in the diagnosis before applying other techniques. Through this method, we can visualize and identify which parts of the tissue were altered with respect to the control group. 相似文献
A method of polarization optical analysis is described in which phase retardation attributable to birefringence of a minute area in a microscopic object is determined. The optical system consists of a polarizing microscope with "rectified" strain-free lenses, a photoelectric detector to determine the intensity of the light passing through a minute window located at the image plane of the specimen, and a stage that moves the specimen at appropriate velocities for scanning. The error resulting from any flare of light emerging from outside of the area to be measured is minimized by limiting the illuminated area. The specimen can be observed during the measurement of light intensity by illuminating the whole microscope field at a wavelength different from that of the light used for the measurement. The retardation of the specimen is determined by comparing the specimen and background intensities as functions of the azimuth of a Brace-Koherl compensator. Alternatively, retardation is obtained directly from the light intensity at a fixed compensator angle, using the theory of polarization optics. The basal noise level for the present apparatus is approximately 0.03 nm when measuring birefringence of a 4-micron2 area in 0.1 s, using a X 40, NA 0.65 objective. The noise decreases in inverse proportion to the square root of the area times the duration of measurement. 相似文献
We propose a universal plasmonic polarization state analyzer consisting of rectangular holes arranged along an Archimedes spiral in silver film. The analyzer can detect different polarization states of light including linear, circular, radial and azimuthal polarizations. The theoretical analysis of its transmitted field is performed on the basis of the dipole radiations, and the analytic expressions of the electric field distributions under different polarized illuminations are provided. The numerical simulations of the near-field transmissions are also conducted to verify the analytic results. The significant differences between the field distributions predict the practicability of the universal plasmonic polarization state analyzer in determining the incident light polarization states. 相似文献
Polarization-sensitive optical coherence tomography (PS-OCT) enables three-dimensional imaging of biological tissues based on the inherent contrast provided by scattering and polarization properties. In fibrous tissue such as the white matter of the brain, PS-OCT allows quantitative mapping of tissue birefringence. For the popular PS-OCT layout using a single circular input state, birefringence measurements are based on a straight-forward evaluation of phase retardation data. However, the accuracy of these measurements strongly depends on the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and is prone to mapping artifacts when the SNR is low. Here we present a simple yet effective approach for improving the accuracy of PS-OCT phase retardation and birefringence measurements. By performing a noise bias correction of the detected OCT signal amplitudes, the impact of the noise floor on retardation measurements can be markedly reduced. We present simulation data to illustrate the influence of the noise bias correction on phase retardation measurements and support our analysis with real-world PS-OCT image data. 相似文献