Characterizing refractive index and thickness of biological tissues using combined multiphoton microscopy and optical coherence tomography

We present a noninvasive method for characterizing the refractive index (RI) and thickness distribution in biological tissues using a combined multiphoton microscopy (MPM) and optical coherence tomography (OCT) system. Tissue layers are distinguished by the MPM and OCT images, and the RI and thickness of each layer are determined by analyzing the co-registered MPM and OCT images. The precision of this method is evaluated on four standard samples which are water, air, immersion oil and cover glass. Precision of within ~1% error compared to reference values is obtained. Biological tissue measurement is demonstrated on fish cornea. Three layers are detected, which are identified as the epithelium and stroma I and II of the cornea. The corresponding RI of each layer is measured to be ~1.446–1.448, 1.345–1.372, and 1.392–1.436, respectively. The difference of RI in the three layers correlates with the tissue compositions including cells in epithelium, large collagen fiber bundles in stroma I, and small collagen fibers in stroma II. The combined MPM/OCT technique is shown to be able to distinguish tissue layers through biochemically specific contrasts and measure RI and thickness of tissue layers at different depths.