Shuichi MAKITA, Yoshiaki YASUNO, Yasunori SUTOH, Masahide ITOH and Toyohiko YATAGAI

Institute of Applied Physics, University of Tsukuba, Tennodai 1-1-1, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8573, Japan

(Received February 27, 2003; Accepted June 9, 2003)

Polarization-sensitive spectral interferometric optical coherence tomography (PS-SI-OCT) is designed for imaging of the inner structure of a biological tissue with polarization properties corresponding to Muller matrix elements. With arbitrary polarization state of incident and reference light, the change of polarization state can be acquired, and the axial structure of the tissue is measured by single detection of the power spectrum, superposition of object and reference light. Using with this OCT system, a cross-sectional Muller matrix images of human skin can be observed.

Key words: optical coherence tomography, polarization-sensitive,spectral interference, birefringence, Muller matrix