Endoscopic polarimetric imaging system based on a spectrally encoded polarization states generator

Recently, polarimetric imaging of biological tissues has been shown to be a very promising technique for early detection of diseases such as lung, skin or colon cancer. In order to apply polarization imaging to deep organs in situ, this technique must be associated to endoscopic ones. In this case, light reflected by the targeted area ("sample") is analyzed after its propagation along the endoscopic fiber. Thus, the challenge consists in extracting the polarimetric response of the sample from a signal which polarization state has been modified in an unpredictible way due to the birefringence of the fiber.