Abstract
Many polarisation techniques have been harnessed for decades in biological and clinical research, each based upon measurement of the vectorial properties of light or the vectorial transformations imposed on light by objects. Various advanced vector measurement/sensing techniques, physical interpretation methods, and approaches to analyse biomedically relevant information have been developed and harnessed. In this review, we focus mainly on summarising methodologies and applications related to tissue polarimetry, with an emphasis on the adoption of the Stokes–Mueller formalism. Several recent breakthroughs, development trends, and potential multimodal uses in conjunction with other techniques are also presented. The primary goal of the review is to give the reader a general overview in the use of vectorial information that can be obtained by polarisation optics for applications in biomedical and clinical research.
Highlights
Light, as an electromagnetic wave, possesses several fundamental properties, which include intensity, wavelength, phase and polarisation[1,2]
Studies of either the vector properties of light, described via the state of polarisation (SOP) or the full vectorial transformation properties of an object, have a shorter history in biomedical analysis compared with their scalar counterparts, and the extent of their application is still being explored[3–5]
We focus on the occurrence of elastic scattering in conjunction with other polarisation characteristics for biomedical polarimetry
Summary
As an electromagnetic wave, possesses several fundamental properties, which include intensity, wavelength, phase and polarisation[1,2] (see Fig. 1a).
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