Imaging collagen and skeletal muscle fibers using Stokes-Polarimeter based Second Harmonic Generation Microscopy

We analyzed the polarization states of SHG signals through four-channel photon counting based Stokes-polarimeter. The effects of linearly and circularly polarized light are characterized on molecular structure of starch granule. Different polarization parameters such as the degree of polarization (DOP), degree of linear polarization (DOLP), degree of circular polarization (DOCP), as well as anisotropy are measured from the acquired Stokes parameters. We present a polarimetric analysis of the SHG signal emitted by collagen type I and skeletal muscle fibers, in order to extract structural information on molecular order and orientation. With the appropriate combination of input laser polarization and the detection of output polarization states of SH signal will yield the absolute molecular orientations of the samples.