BIREFRINGENCE CHARACTERIZATION OF BIOLOGICAL TISSUE BY USE OF OPTICALCOHERENCE TOMOGRAPHY

An improved polarization-sensitive optical coherence tomography (OCT) system is developed and used to measure birefringence in porcine myoca rdium tissue and produce two-dimensional birefringence mapping of the tissue. Signal-to-noise issues that cause systematic measurement error s are analyzed to determine the regime in which such measurements are accurate. The advantage of polarization-sensitive OCT systems over sta ndard OCT systems in avoiding image artifacts caused by birefringence is also demonstrated. (C) 1998 Optical Society of America.