Multi-contrast Jones-matrix optical coherence tomography -- the concept, principle, implementation, and applications

Abstract

Jones-matrix optical coherence tomography (JM-OCT) is an extension of OCT that provides multiple types of optical contrasts of biological and clinical samples. JM-OCT measures the spatial distribution of the Jones matrix of the sample and also its time sequence. All contrasts (i.e., multi-contrast OCT images) are then computed from the Jones matrix. The contrasts obtained from the Jones matrix include the conventional and polarization-insensitive OCT intensity, cumulative and local phase retardation (birefringence), degree-of-polarization uniformity quantifying the polarization randomness of the sample, signal attenuation coefficient, sample scatterer density, Doppler OCT, OCT angiography, and dynamic OCT. JM-OCT is a generalized version of OCT because it measures the generalized form of the sample information; i.e., the Jones matrix sequence. This review summarizes the basic conception, mathematical principle, hardware implementation, signal and image processing, and biological and clinical applications of JM-OCT. Advanced technical topics, including JM-OCT-specific noise correction and quantity estimation and JM-OCT's self-calibration nature, are also described.