Effect of polarization on the point spread function in optical coherence tomography

While partially polarized light sources have been commonly used in OCT, the contribution of different states of polarization of the light source to the system's point spread function (PSF) has not been fully studied. This effect can have major implications in imaging, leading to data misinterpretation. This study evaluated the impact of polarization and phase distribution of the source on the PSF of OCT. Three partially polarized light sources with different degrees of polarization were considered for this evaluation. The simulations and experimental evaluations were in good agreement. The study highlighted different PSF patterns associated with the statistics of the phase distribution between two orthogonal x and y axes.