Depth-selective fiber-optic probe for characterization of superficial tissue at a constant physical depth

The in vivo assessment of superficial tissue has shown great promise in many biomedical applications. Significant efforts have been expended in designing compact fiber-optic probes with short tissue penetration depth targeting the superficial epithelium. In this paper, we present a compact and simple two-channel fiber-optic probe with superior depth selectivity for the superficial tissue. This probe employs a high-index ball-lens with an optimized illumination area and the maximal overlap between light illumination and collection spots, while maintaining sufficient light collection efficiency with minimized specular reflection. Importantly, we show that this probe allows the selection of a constant and shallow physical penetration depth, insensitive to a wide range of tissue-relevant scattering coefficients and anisotropy factors. We demonstrate the capability of this depth-selective fiber-optic probe to accurately quantify the absorber concentration in superficial tissue without the distortion of tissue scattering properties; and characterize the optical properties of superficial skin tissue.