textThis dissertation presents design, implementation, and biomedical
applications of a novel polarization-maintaining-fiber based phase sensitive
optical low-coherence reflectometer (PS-OLCR). Using dual channels, PS-OLCR
detects Angstrom/nanometer scale optical path length changes by calculating
phase difference between depth resolved interference fringes. Ability to detect
such small changes in optical path length at specific depths is useful in a wide
variety of biomedical imaging and sensing applications. Application areas
investigated in this dissertation include (i) measurement of analyte concentrations,
(ii) imaging surface topography, (iii) cartilage surface response to electrical
stimulation, (iv) arterial tissue response to photothermal stimulation, (v)
birefringence measurement, and (vi) optical detection of neural activity. For each
application, results of PS-OLCR differential phase measurements are presented.Electrical and Computer Engineerin