Polarization state transition mechanism of light through turbid media by Monte Carlo simulation

Abstract

We study the propagation of polarized light through turbid media with high scattering coefficient (μ s = 50 cm−1) and disclose the physical processes involved in the evolution of Stokes vector. The results show that the components of the Stokes vector can be expressed as the superimposition of the generalized divergence and the generalized curl of the two orthogonal electric field vectors. The components I, Q, and U can be represented as the superimposition of the generalized divergence. The components V can be conveyed as the superimposition of the generalized curl omitting the direction. Further, the depolarization of the linearly polarized light corresponds to the alteration of the generalized divergence, while the depolarization of the circularly polarized light coincides with the variability of the generalized curl omitting the direction. The evolutions of the scattering electric fields arise from the scattering of the particles, followed by the polarization state transition of the incident light and the change of the scattering phase function. Further, the circularly polarized light can preserve the polarization state better than that of the linearly polarized light with an increase of the thickness of the scattering volume.