Dark-field circular depolarization optical coherence microscopy.
Optical coherence microscopy (OCM) is a widely used structural imaging modality. To extend its application in molecular imaging, gold nanorods are widely used as contrast agents for OCM. However, they very often offer limited sensitivity as a result of poor signal to background ratio. Here we experimentally demonstrate that a novel OCM implementation based on dark-field circular depolarization detection can efficiently detect circularly depolarized signal from gold nanorods and at the same time efficiently suppress the background signals. This results into a significant improvement in signal to background ratio.
Optical Bioimaging Lab, Department of Bioengineering, National University of Singapore, 7 Engineering Drive 1, Blk E3A, 07-10, 117576 Singapore ; NUS Graduate School for Integrative Sciences and Engineering, National University of Singapore, 28 Medical Drive, 117456 Singapore ; These authors contributed equally to this work.
Kalpesh
K
Mehta
Pengfei
P
Zhang
Eugenia Li Ling
EL
Yeo
James Chen Yong
JC
Kah
Nanguang
N
Chen
(110.4500) Optical coherence tomography; (120.5820) Scattering measurements; (180.3170) Interference microscopy; (290.5850) Scattering, particles; (290.5855) Scattering, polarization