Exploring the influence of wavelength and polarization of illuminating light on polarization imaging for birefringent objects concealed behind scattering structure

The effect of wavelength and polarization of illuminating light in polarization imaging for birefringent objects placed behind a scattering structure was investigated experimentally. Although the obtained images of degree of polarization, azimuthal angle, and ellipticity angle were strongly affected by scattering, the spatial distribution of the birefringent object was more clearly visualized in the longer wavelength combined with circularly polarized light illumination condition. This result indicates that polarization imaging in the near -infrared range using circularly polarized light illumination should be a powerful tool for visualizing birefringent object with scattering, and will be applicable to biomedical sensing and remote sensing.

Automated summary

The effect of wavelength and polarization of illuminating light in polarization imaging for birefringent objects placed behind a scattering structure was experimentally investigated. The result shows that the spatial distribution of the birefringent object was more clearly visualized in the longer wavelength combined with circularly polarized light illumination. This finding indicates the potential of using polarization imaging with circularly polarized light illumination in the near-infrared range for visualizing birefringent objects with scattering.