Shuichi MAKITA^*, Yoshiaki YASUNO, Takashi ENDO, Masahide ITOH and Toyohiko YATAGAI

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

(Received September 30, 2004; Accepted January 19, 2005)

A polarization-sensitive Fourier domain optical coherence tomography (PS-FD-OCT) system has been developed. By using a two-dimensional CCD camera, this PS-FD-OCT simultaneously obtains two spectral interferograms corresponding to orthogonal polarization components of a probing beam. FD-OCT avoids axial mechanical scanning, therefore, two OCT images are obtained by a single lateral scanning. This system requires only two one-dimensional scannings for determining the Muller matrix images of a sample. In the Muller matrix images, the birefringence properties of the inner surface of a porcine esophagus are revealed.

Key words: optical coherence tomography, Fourier domain optical coherence tomography, biological sample, Jones matrix, polarization, birefringence

^*E-mail address: makita@optlab2.bk.tsukuba.ac.jp