Light backscattering polarization patterns from turbid media: theory and experiment

Abstract

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.

Propagation of polarized light in turbid media: simulated animation sequences

“…Several groups have used Monte Carlo techniques to simulate the steady-state backscattering Mueller matrix of a turbid medium [10,11]. Whereas an indirect method utilizing the symmetry of the backscattering Mueller matrix was used in Ref.…”

Modeling of light scattering in biotissue

“…In simulation (Figs 4-6), the following system parameters [10][11][12][13][14] were used: the refractive index of the scattering particle -1.57, the refractive index of the medium around the particles -1.33, the diameter of the scattering particles -0.35 μm, the wavelength equal to 0.6328, absorption coefficient -1 cm 3 , scattering coefficient -90 cm 3 , the thickness of the material along the Z-axis -0.2 cm, the number of photons -1000000. …”

Polarization Sensitive Optical Imaging and Characterization of Soybean Using Stokes-Mueller Matrix Model

“…The seven out of sixteen are independent and other can be calculated through symmetry relation. [39] By comparing the images of Fig. 3, 4, and 5, one can identify the unique features of the Mueller matrix for scattering medium.…”