Mueller matrix measurements on absorbing turbid medium.

Polarization parameters of diffuse backscattered light from a turbid sample are sensitive to its structural properties and can, therefore, be used to probe morphological features of tissue and, thus, monitor changes that arise due to a disease. Extraction of morphological information from measured polarization parameters, however, requires a careful understanding of the dependence of these on factors such as size, size distribution, shape, and dielectric constant of the scatterers, which are often quite involved. In particular, the presence of absorption complicates the dependence of polarization parameters on tissue morphological features. We have found that, while for medium comprising small size scatterers (Rayleigh scatterers), the depolarization shows the expected decrease with an increase in the absorption of the scattering medium, a counterintuitive behavior was observed for larger size (>lambda) scatterers. Further analysis of the results suggests that the observed behavior might arise due to the relative contribution of two depolarizing processes, one resulting from a series of out-of-plane scattering and the other due to the angular variation of the state of polarization in a single scattering event.

[1]  C. Bustamante,et al.  Differential polarization imaging. III. Theory confirmation. Patterns of polymerization of hemoglobin S in red blood sickle cells. , 1987, Biophysical journal.

[2]  M. Moscoso,et al.  Influence of the relative refractive index on the depolarization of multiply scattered waves. , 2001, Physical review. E, Statistical, nonlinear, and soft matter physics.

[3]  Michael B. Wallace,et al.  Observation of periodic fine structure in reflectance from biological tissue: A new technique for measuring nuclear size distribution , 1998 .

[4]  A. J. Hunt,et al.  Hemoglobin polymerization in sickle cells studied by circular polarized light scattering. , 1991, Biochimica et biophysica acta.

[5]  N. Ghosh,et al.  Depolarization of light in tissue phantoms - effect of a distribution in the size of scatterers. , 2003, Optics express.

[6]  I Alex Vitkin,et al.  Optical rotation and linear and circular depolarization rates in diffusively scattered light from chiral, racemic, and achiral turbid media. , 2002, Journal of biomedical optics.

[7]  Asima Pradhan,et al.  Depolarization of light in a multiply scattering medium: effect of the refractive index of a scatterer. , 2004, Physical review. E, Statistical, nonlinear, and soft matter physics.

[8]  I. Alex Vitkin,et al.  Polarization studies in multiply scattering chiral media , 2000 .

[9]  D. Côté,et al.  Balanced detection for low-noise precision polarimetric measurements of optically active, multiply scattering tissue phantoms. , 2004, Journal of biomedical optics.

[10]  M. V. van Gemert,et al.  Two-dimensional birefringence imaging in biological tissue using polarization-sensitive optical coherence tomography , 1997, European Conference on Biomedical Optics.

[11]  M. K. Swami,et al.  Mueller matrix approach for determination of optical rotation in chiral turbid media in backscattering geometry. , 2006, Optics express.

[12]  Matthew H. Smith,et al.  Interpreting Mueller matrix images of tissues , 2001, SPIE BiOS.

[13]  J. Walsh,et al.  Quantitative measurements of linear birefringence during heating of native collagen , 1997, Lasers in surgery and medicine.

[14]  I. Alex Vitkin,et al.  Polarization preservation in diffusive scattering from in vivo turbid biological media: effects of tissue optical absorption in the exact backscattering direction , 2001 .

[15]  G. Coté,et al.  Noninvasive glucose sensing utilizing a digital closed-loop polarimetric approach , 1997, IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering.

[16]  D. Côté,et al.  Robust concentration determination of optically active molecules in turbid media with validated three-dimensional polarization sensitive Monte Carlo calculations. , 2005, Optics express.

[17]  Michael I Mishchenko,et al.  Effects of absorption on multiple scattering by random particulate media: exact results. , 2007, Optics express.

[18]  R. Chipman,et al.  Interpretation of Mueller matrices based on polar decomposition , 1996 .

[19]  H. S. Patel,et al.  Depolarization of light in tissue phantoms – effect of collection geometry , 2003 .

[20]  Yanfang Li,et al.  Polarization-based optical imaging and processing techniques with application to the cancer diagnostics , 2002, SPIE BiOS.

[21]  B. Jeune,et al.  Utilization of Mueller matrix formalism to obtain optical targets depolarization and polarization properties , 1997 .

[22]  Michael S. Feld,et al.  Polarized light scattering spectroscopy for quantitative measurement of epithelial cellular structures in situ , 1999 .

[23]  Schmitt,et al.  Depolarization of multiply scattered waves by spherical diffusers: Influence of the size parameter. , 1994, Physical review. E, Statistical physics, plasmas, fluids, and related interdisciplinary topics.

[24]  Zhongping Chen,et al.  Use of polar decomposition for the diagnosis of oral precancer. , 2007, Applied optics.

[25]  M. K. Swami,et al.  Mueller matrix-based optimization of reflective type twisted nematic liquid crystal SLM at oblique incidences , 2010 .

[26]  D. A. Zimnyakov,et al.  Effect of absorption of multiply scattering media on the degree of residual polarization of backscattered light , 2002 .

[27]  M. K. Swami,et al.  Polarized diffuse reflectance measurements on cancerous and noncancerous tissues , 2009, Journal of biophotonics.

[28]  I. Vitkin,et al.  Effects of molecular asymmetry of optically active molecules on the polarization properties of multiply scattered light. , 2002, Optics express.