Polarized laser speckle images produced by calibrated polystyrene microspheres suspensions: comparison between backscattering and transmission experimental configurations

Abstract

Abstract In this paper, we analyze polarized laser speckle images produced by calibrated polystyrene microspheres suspensions and discuss the results obtained while considering two different experimental configurations for light detection: speckle-transmission setup and speckle-backscattering one. The degree of light polarization (DOP) and speckle grain size (dx) were monitored in both cases. Results show that, when backscattered photons are detected, the degree of circular polarization allows a fine monitoring of the variation of scatterers concentration in a sample. A helicity flipping is detected as the scatterers concentration increases, showing that a transition from a simple scattering regime to a multiple scattering one is taking place. When transmitted scattered photons are detected dx is a better parameter than DOP for following changes in scattering regime: dx values initially increase slightly then decrease as the scattering coefficient increases. The observed maximum corresponds to the shift from a simple to a multiple scattering regime.