Polarization sensitive optical coherence tomography (PS-OCT) operating at 840 nm with axial resolution of 3.8 µm in tissue was used for investigating the posterior rat eye during an acute intraocular pressure (IOP) increase experiment. IOP was elevated in the eyes of anesthetized Sprague Dawley rats by cannulation of the anterior chamber. Three dimensional PS-OCT data sets were acquired at IOP ...

In this paper a technique to measure the distributed birefringence profile along optical fibers is proposed and experimentally validated. The method is based on the spectral correlation between two sets of orthogonally-polarized measurements acquired using a phase-sensitive optical time-domain reflectometer (ϕOTDR). The correlation between the two measured spectra gives a resonance (correlation...

We present an analysis for polarization-sensitive optical coherence tomography that facilitates the unrestricted use of fiber and fiber-optic components throughout an interferometer and yields sample birefringence, diattenuation, and relative optic axis orientation. We use a novel Jones matrix approach that compares the polarization states of light reflected from the sample surface with those r...

We present a novel method of machining optical fiber surfaces with a CO₂ laser for use in Fiber-based Fabry-Perot Cavities (FFPCs). Previously FFPCs were prone to large birefringence and limited to relatively short cavity lengths (≤ 200 μm). These characteristics hinder their use in some applications such as cavity quantum electrodynamics with trapped ions. We optimized the laser machining proc...

We present a novel strategy for designing a highly birefringent photonic crystal fiber (PCF) with near zero flattened dispersion properties by applying elliptical air holes in the core area. The elliptical structure of the air holes in the porous-core region introduces asymmetry between x and y polarization modes, which consequently offers ultra-high birefringence. Also the compact geometry of ...

We have demonstrated a polarization sensitive cartilage and muscle imaging based on common path optical coherence tomography (CP-OCT) using near infrared source. The axial and lateral resolutions of our PS-OCT system are 9m and 6m, respectively. The internal structural information has been extracted by the real-time signal analysis (Fourier Transform) from the modulated spectral intensity dep...

Porosity-induced birefringence in a GaP membrane is studied using a method based on the analysis of beats in unpolarized and polarized transmittance spectra as well as in angular dependence of optical spectra. Birefringence as high as ne − no = 0.25 was measured in a porous GaP membrane with the degree of porosity close to 40%. The measured values of ne and no are compared with those calculated...

We present two sets of equations to describe nonlinear pulse propagation in a birefringent fiber Bragg grating. The first set uses a coupled-mode formalism to describe light in or near the photonic band gap of the grating. The second set is a pair of coupled nonlinear Schroedinger equations. We use these equations to examine viable switching experiments in the presence of birefringence. We show...

Supramolecular aggregates can be aligned in solution using a magnetic field. Because of the optical anisotropy of the molecular building blocks, the alignment results in an anisotropic refractive index of the solution parallel and perpendicular to the magnetic field. We present a model for calculating the magnetic birefringence, using solely the magnetic susceptibilities and optical polarizabil...

We study the wave propagation in nonlinear electrodynamical models. Particular attention is paid to the derivation and the analysis of the Fresnel equation for the wave covectors. For the class of general nonlinear Lagrangian models, we demonstrate how the originally quartic Fresnel equation factorizes, yielding the generic birefringence effect. We show that the closure of the effective constit...