Polarization sensitive optical coherence tomography of melanin provides tissue inherent contrast based on depolarization

Polarization sensitive optical coherence tomography (PS-OCT) was used to investigate the polarization properties of melanin. Measurements in samples with varying melanin concentrations revealed polarization scrambling, i.e. depolarization. The results indicate that the depolarizing appearance of pigmented structures like, for instance, the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) is likely to be caused by the melanin granules contained in these cells.