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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2013 Jun 1.
Published in final edited form as: Lett Appl Microbiol. 2012 Apr 10;54(6):537–542. doi: 10.1111/j.1472-765X.2012.03243.x

Figure 1.

Figure 1

Cross-Polarization OCT. A) A Mach-Zehnder type interferometer that used a polarization beam splitter (PBS) to illuminate with linear polarized light. This part of the CP-OCT system is integrated to a two axis tilt MEMS scanning mirror and then illuminates a 90 degree mirror. B) The sample biofilm growing on a material disc in the bioreactor is illuminated with linear polarized light. The sample is kept partially hydrated to simulate the hydrated conditions in the oral cavity. C) The aqueous layers in the sample will reflect and preserve the linear polarized light (P-state). Bacterial cellular and extracellular components will partially depolarize the incident light into the cross-polarization axis (S-state). The PBS will filter out the P-state from the returning optical signal and allows the cellular and extracellular scattering to be measured.