We introduce a method of azimuthally invariant 3D Mueller-matrix (MM) layer-by-layer mapping of the phase and amplitude parameters of anisotropy of the partially depolarizing layers of benign (adenoma) and malignant (carcinoma) prostate tumours. The technique is based on the analysis of spatial variations of Mueller matrix invariant (MMI) of histological sections of benign (adenoma) and malignant (carcinoma) tissue samples. The phase dependence of magnitudes of the first-to-fourth order statistical moments is applied to characterize 3D spatial distributions of MMI of linear and circular birefringence and dichroism of prostate tumours. The high order statistical moments and phase sections of the optimal differentiation of the polycrystalline structure of tissue samples are revealed. The obtained results are compared with the results obtained by conventional methods utilizing polarized light, including 2D and 3D Mueller matrix imaging.

The paper presents a new method for determining the degree of coherence of superposing plane linearly polarized waves converging at the angle of 90°. The spatial modulation of polarization, which causes the spatial modulation of the averaged values of the Poynting vector, presets the modulation of the volume energy density. Such an inhomogeneous optical field can affect nano-sized particles randomly caught in this field. The paper shows that the maximum velocity of "trapping" the particles into the regions of maximum averaged values of the Poynting vector determines the degree of coherence of interacting waves.

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Abstract. We discuss interconnections between the depth of spatial inhomogeneity of energy distribution of the optical fields and the velocity of motion of test particles for the cases of different light scattering mechanisms during interaction with light. We suggest an additional tool for determining the degree of coherence of superposing waves that propagate along mutually orthogonal directions and have orthogonal polarisations, being linearly polarised in the incidence plane. The use of velocity of the test particles while estimating the degree of coherence of optical fields is suggested for the first time.

The motion of light scattering particles of the Mie and Rayleigh micro- and nano-range type in the inhomogeneously-polarized optical field, with allowance made for the Brownian movement, is analysed in the paper. The spatial modulation of polarization in the observation plane determines the spatial modulation of the volume energy density. That is why the velocity and the resulting optical force, which cause the motion of the testing particles, change according to the degree of coherence of the interacting fields. The influence of the forces which arise in the viscous medium and cause the Brownian movement upon the mechanisms of manipulating and trapping testing particles by the optical field is studied.