Spectral domain polarization sensitive optical coherence tomography achieved by single camera detection

We present a spectral domain polarization sensitive optical coherence tomography (PSOCT) system that incorporates: 1) a spectrometer configured with a single line-scan camera for spectral interferogram detection, 2) a reference delay line assembly that provides a fixed optical pathlength delay between the lights of two orthogonal polarization states, and 3) a moving reference mirror that introduces a constant modulation frequency in the spatial spectral interferograms while the probe beam is scanned over the sample. The system utilizes the full range of complex Fourier plane for polarization sensitive imaging, where OCT images formed by the vertical and horizontal polarization beam components appear adjacent to each other. It is able to provide imaging of retardation, fast optic axis and backscattered intensity of the interrogated biological tissue. The system is experimentally demonstrated both in vitro and in vivo with an imaging rate at 10,000 A scans per second. (C) 2007 Optical Society of America