Reconstruction of angle-resolved backscattering through a multimode fiber for cell nuclei and particle size determination

Abstract

We demonstrate the reconstruction of angle-resolved optical backscattering after transmission through a multimode fiber. Angle-resolved backscattering is an important tool for particle sizing, and has been developed as a diagnostic modality for detecting epithelial pre-cancer. In this work, we fully characterized the transfer function of a multimode fiber using a plane-wave illumination basis across two dimensions. Once characterized, angle-resolved scattering information, which has been scrambled by multimodal propagation can be easily and accurately reconstructed. Our technique was validated using a Mie theory-based inverse light scattering analysis algorithm on polystyrene microsphere phantoms of known sizes. To demonstrate the clinical potential of this approach, nuclear morphology was determined from the reconstructed angular backscattering from MCF-10A human mammary epithelial cell samples and validated against quantitative image analysis of fluorescence microscopy images.