• Add-On Module for Use with Thorlabs’ Swept Source Imaging Systems
• Real-Time of Birefringent Samples
• Ideal for Imaging Biological and Industrial Materials

Thorlabs’ PSOCT-1300 is an add-on module allowing for Polarization-Sensitive Optical Coherence Tomography (PS-OCT). PS-OCT is a cross-sectional birefringence imaging tool used to study a wide range of biological and industrial materials. An extension of OCT, PS-OCT is based on measuring the polarization properties of light collected from birefringent samples. Thorlabs has developed a real-time, fiber-based swept source PS-OCT imaging system that provides simultaneous cross-sectional imaging of the intensity and phase retardation of light backscattered from birefringent samples. This system utilizes a standard Thorlabs 1300 nm SS-OCT Imaging System (OCS1300SS) with the PS-OCT add-on module. The modularity of the Thorlabs OCT system enables incorporation of PS-OCT imaging capability at any time. Thorlabs' software package enables easy display of OCT structural or PS-OCT birefringence images.

A material exhibits birefreingence when it decomposes light into two polarization states with an optical delay being imposed on one state. This optical phenomena only occurs if the material is anisotropic. Materials that exhibit birefringence include tissues such as tendons, muscles, teeth, bones, blood vessels, and skin. In samples such as these, PS-OCT provides additional contrast compared to conventional OCT structural images. The real-time, high-resolution imaging capability of PS-OCT makes it well suited for studying glaucoma and other eye diseases, dental diseases, burn depths in the skin, and vascular imaging to guide plaque excision. Birefringence is also created in isotropic materials that have undergone a deformation such that the isotropy is lost in one direction (i.e., stress-induced birefringence). In such cases, PS-OCT is very useful for nondestructive detection of stress birefringence in industrial materials such as plastics, thin films, semiconductors, and liquid crystals.

• Real-Time Display of Phase Retardation Images
• Contrast Based on Birefringence of Material