Expression of target optical properties in subsurface polarization-gated imaging

Abstract

We examined the expression of target optical properties in subsurface polarization imaging under linearly and circularly polarized illumination. Reflecting, scattering, and absorption targets were imaged in tissue mimic phantoms. The polarization gated images were compared with raw and unpolarized images to determine image enhancement as a function of target depth. The experimental results were also compared with Monte-Carlo simulations to study the model's applicability. Our results indicated that polarization imaging provided a means to separate different optical targets where they would otherwise appear similar under unpolarized light.