Evaluation of the magneto-optical effect in biological tissue models using optical coherence tomography

For the first time to our knowledge, an experimental evaluation of the Faraday effect–induced polarization rotation in a biological tissue phantom is reported. The rotation of the polarization plane produced in the optical beam propagating through an Intralipid solution was evaluated using polarization-sensitive optical coherence tomography (PS-OCT), and the experimental results closely matched the theoretical values. The angle of rotation is proportional to the traversed path length along the magnetic field and can potentially be used to estimate the actual penetration depth.