Formulation of beam propagating through the organized tissues withpolarization-sensitive OCT

Abstract

It is known that the collagen-rich and well-organized biological tissues have birefringent characteristics when presented to the light. Determination of collagen fiber organization in tissue is of paramount importance in clinical diagnosis. With the precise control of the polarization state of incident and reflected light, polarization sensitive optical coherence tomography (PSOCT) could be used to visualize the tissue birefringence. To understand this better, the mathematical treatment relying on rigorous polarization optics would be needed. This paper is primarily for this purpose. The emphasis is placed on the discussions of light reflected from within a sample using a point source beam and analytical derivations of the polarization properties of tissue based on quasi-Stokes parameters (I, Q, U, V) and Jones matrix formalism.