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Diagnostic modalities that determine the extent of damage to peripheral nerve tissues that can happen in the case of burn injuries and skin cancer are significant for optical imaging. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a well-established imaging tool for ophthalmology, skin diseases and dental applications. Recently, the polarized optical coherence tomography (PS-OCT) technique has been used for nerve tissue imaging in ophthalmology. This technique involves slow and fast axis, which gives the phase retardation depending upon the birefringence of a the target material and provides information about tissue characteristics and thickness. Skin, dental tissue, and nerve tissue layers also show birefringence characteristics. In the present study, the imaging of the nerve tissues by the PS-OCT technique is proposed and demonstrated. Initially, the birefringence characteristics of a chicken nerve tissue were studied using a polarized light source with a wavelength of 532 nm and measuring the transmission characteristic through a rotating analyzer. The widening of the output intensity peak clearly indicated the birefringent nature of the nerve fiber. The PS-OCT setup was built using a polarizing beam splitter and quarter-wave plates. A superluminescent diode (SLD) with a wavelength of 1300 nm was used to image birefringent and non-birefringent samples along with the nerve tissue by PS-OCT setup. The spectral information of both polarization states confirmed the birefringence characteristics of the nerve tissue. Further studies are planned for nerve tissue imaging in a near-infrared region using a supercontinuum light source with a wavelength of around 1060 nm to increase the penetration depth during measurements.
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