Light backscattering polarization patterns from turbid media: theory and experiment

We present both experimental measurements and Monte-Carlo-based simulations of the diffusely backscattered intensity patterns that arise from illuminating a turbid medium with a polarized laser beam. It is rigorously shown that, because of axial symmetry of the system, only seven elements of the effective backscattering Mueller matrix are independent. A new numerical method that allows simultaneous calculation of all 16 elements of the two-dimensional Mueller matrix is used. To validate our method we compared calculations to measurements from a turbid medium that consisted of polystyrene spheres of different sizes and concentrations in deionized water. The experimental and numerical results are in excellent agreement

Diffuse reflectance polarization images of turbid media affected by glucose

Diffuse reflectance polarimetry has been used to obtain images from tissue-simulating turbid media with different glucose concentrations to investigate the changes in the polarization patterns induced by glucose. The optical properties change as the concentration of glucose is varied in the medium. The polarization patterns are affected by the overall optical properties of the turbid medium under study. This approach has potential applications in actual biological tissues for rapidly determining glucose levels non-invasively

Diffusely backscattered polarized light Mueller matrix imaging of a turbid medium

The diffusely backscattered Mueller matrix of a turbid medium consisting of 2.02 µm polystyrene spheres has been measured experimentally and simulated with Monte Carlo analysis

Diffusely backscattered polarized light Mueller matrix imaging of a turbid medium

The diffusely backscattered Mueller matrix of a turbid medium consisting of 2.02 µm polystyrene spheres has been measured experimentally and simulated with Monte Carlo analysis