Depolarization and blurring of optical images by biological tissue

We present a study of the image blurring and depolarization resulting from the transmission of a narrow beam of light through a continuous random medium. We investigate the dependence of image quality degradation and of depolarization on optical thickness, correlation length of the inhomogeneities, and incident polarization state. This is done numerically with a Monte Carlo method based on a transport equation that takes into account polarization of light. We compare our results with those for transport in media with discrete spherical scatterers. We show that depolarization effects are different in these two models of biological tissue. (C) 2001 Optical Society of America.