Tissue Polarimetry

Summary

This chapter explains the polarized light fundamentals and mathematical formulations of polarized light and its propagation in biological tissues. It introduces the Stokes Mueller formalism, which provides a mathematically sound and physically intuitive description of all light polarization states, including partially polarized ones, which are particularly relevant for tissue polarimetry. The essential polarimetric properties, namely the diattenuation, the polarizance, the retardation, and the depolarization have been defined for “simple” polarimetric objects. The chapter then explains the basic principles of design and optimization of polarimetric instrumentation, and outlines the most widely used practical implementations. These may take a variety of forms, depending on the selected optical systems (imaging or non‐imaging) and the way the polarization is encoded and detected. The chapter also describes forward and inverse problems in polarimetry of turbid media (both theoretical modeling and experimental validation), and focuses on applications related to tissue diagnosis and assessment.