Polarization maintaining fiber with simple optical configuration for polarization-insensitive optical coherence tomography

To consistently acquire high-quality optical coherence tomography (OCT) images under various experimental conditions, it is essential to compensate for artifacts caused by polarization state variations. Because most OCT systems employ optical fibers for light delivery and often use polarized light sources, the polarization state can vary arbitrarily depending on environmental or mechanical factors. In this study, we propose a polarization-maintaining fiber-based polarization-insensitive OCT (PM-PI-OCT) system featuring a simple optical configuration and an easy compensation mechanism. Its robustness and practical applicability were demonstrated through in-vivo human retina imaging using a customized handheld probe. The developed polarization-insensitive OCT requires no pre-calibration, post-processing, or additional computational effort for implementation and can be readily integrated into general fiber-based OCT systems. We believe that this simple yet robust polarization-insensitive OCT approach offers high versatility and can be effectively applied to a wide range of existing OCT configurations to compensate for polarization state variations.