Single-shot full-field optical coherence tomography with a single polarization camera

We present a novel implementation technique of single-shot full-field optical coherence tomography (S-FF-OCT) by utilizing a single-sensor polarization camera. S-FF-OCT is capable of acquiring interference image information in a single camera capture with a short signal integration time, which makes it particularly advantageous for tomographic imaging of fast-moving objects or samples under environmental vibrations. For a simple and compact system of S-FF-OCT, we developed a polarization-channeled detection scheme of interference based on a Linnik interferometer and a commercial polarization camera. The phase-shifted quadrature components of the polarized interferograms are generated by the polarization optics and can be analyzed using the polarization camera. A single capture of the interferograms yields an en-face OCT image with the help of the coherence gating effect. In this study, the imaging performance of our S-FF-OCT is validated by delineating moving objects and living biological specimens under ambient vibrations, thereby demonstrating its practical application potential for FF-OCT imaging in situ.