title: Transversal phase resolved polarization sensitive optical coherence tomography.
abstract: We present a novel optical coherence tomography (OCT) method to measure backscattered intensity and birefringence properties (retardation and fast axis orientation) and apply it to imaging of human ocular tissue. The method is based on a Mach Zehnder interferometer, on transversal scanning, and on a polarization sensitive two-channel detection. A highly stable carrier frequency is generated by acousto-optic modulators (AOMs). This allows a phase sensitive demodulation by the lock-in technique. Since the recording of individual interference fringes is avoided by this method the amount of data to be recorded and processed is considerably reduced. We demonstrate this method on human cornea and anterior chamber angle and present, to the best of our knowledge, the first OCT images of retardation and fast axis orientation of the anterior chamber angle region in vivo.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Physics, University of Vienna, Waehringerstr 13, A-1090 Vienna, Austria. michael.pircher@univie.ac.at
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pircher
authors.forename: Erich
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Goetzinger
authors.forename: Rainer
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Leitgeb
authors.forename: Christoph K
authors.initials: CK
authors.lastname: Hitzenberger
mesh_terms: D000867:Anterior Chamber / Q000166:cytology*; D003315:Cornea / Q000166:cytology*; D006801:Humans; D066298:In Vitro Techniques; D008857:Microscopy, Interference / Q000379:methods*; D008859:Microscopy, Polarization / Q000379:methods*; D012031:Refractometry / Q000379:methods*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D041623:Tomography, Optical Coherence / Q000379:methods*