Estimation of Refractive Index for Biological Tissue Using Micro-Optical Coherence Tomography

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Optics
• Optical Physics
• Tissue Optics

Background:

• Refractive index is crucial for understanding biological tissue optical properties.
• Characterizing refractive indices across multiple wavelengths is essential for comprehensive analysis.
• Cauchy's coefficients offer a convenient way to describe wavelength-dependent refractive indices.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a noninvasive method for determining Cauchy's dispersion coefficients of biological tissues.
• To utilize micro-optical coherence tomography for optical property characterization.
• To enable accurate refractive index assessment over a broad spectral range.

Main Methods:

• Employed micro-optical coherence tomography (micro-OCT) for noninvasive measurements.
• Utilized short-frequency Fourier transforms to analyze interferograms.
• Calculated relative optical thickness based on wavelength-dependent sample thickness.

Main Results:

• Successfully estimated Cauchy's dispersion coefficients for biological tissues.
• Demonstrated the method's validity using distilled water and ex vivo rat cornea.
• Achieved experimental results consistent with established reference data.

Conclusions:

• The proposed micro-OCT method provides a noninvasive approach to determine Cauchy's coefficients.
• This technique facilitates accurate optical property characterization of biological tissues.
• The findings support the utility of this method for various biomedical applications.