Interferometric Fiber-Based Optical Biosensor to Measure Ultra-Small Changes in Refractive Index

摘要

In many bio-medical optical imaging applications such as monitoring cell and tissue dynamics and imaging of phase objects, ultra-small changes in refractive index must be detected. We describe a fiber-based optical biosensor, which is capable of detecting ultra-small refractive index changes in highly scattering media with high lateral and longitudinal spatial resolution. The system is a dual channel phase-sensitive optical low coherence tomography system that measures relative optical path length differences between the orthogonal modes of the polarization-maintaining fiber.