Characterisation of layered scattering media using polarized light

This thesis investigates the properties of backscattered polarized light from layered scattering media with a view to application in the imaging of in-vivo skin for medical application. The research includes investigation of numerically simulated samples, tissue phantoms and in-vivo tissue. The aim...

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Main Author: Stockford, Ian M
Format: Thesis (University of Nottingham only)
Language:English
Published: 2004
Subjects:
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/11817/
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author Stockford, Ian M
author_facet Stockford, Ian M
author_sort Stockford, Ian M
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description This thesis investigates the properties of backscattered polarized light from layered scattering media with a view to application in the imaging of in-vivo skin for medical application. The research includes investigation of numerically simulated samples, tissue phantoms and in-vivo tissue. The aim of the early research is to identify the differences in behaviour between initially linearly and circularly polarized illumination concerning the rates of depolarization with scattering. Initial examination is made through Monte Carlo simulations. The analysis yields results which indicate, for forward scattering media, circular polarizations maintain their initial state to greater depths within a scattering medium than linearly polarized light. This result is exploited to show sensitivity of the different polarizations to different layers within a medium and indicates the potential to achieve coarse optical sectioning. These fundamental properties are extended to a full field imaging arrangement, using both simulated and experimental results to illustrate polarization gating to perform subsurface object imaging in a medium composed of uniform scatterers. The concepts are extended to imaging an in-vivo sample. The removal of multiple scatter and surface reflections is performed using a combination of linearly and circularly polarized illumination coupled with image subtraction, to provide a sub-surface, localised tissue image. This provides an improvement on currently applied techniques, which use linearly polarized light and the application of a flat glass plate and matching fluid. To exploit the spectral properties of tissue, the development and construction of a fully automated, multiple wavelength, polarization imaging system, suitable for testing in a clinical setting is presented. Theoretical investigation into the potential to perform the determination of the optical properties of a two layered sample, using simulated results in-keeping with the system's detection regime, is performed. It is illustrated that the variation of top layer thickness, bottom layer scattering, top and bottom layer absorption coefficient provides well-conditioned data when combining polarization and spectral information.
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format Thesis (University of Nottingham only)
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institution University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus
institution_category Local University
language English
last_indexed 2025-11-14T18:27:21Z
publishDate 2004
recordtype eprints
repository_type Digital Repository
spelling nottingham-118172025-02-28T11:15:46Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/11817/ Characterisation of layered scattering media using polarized light Stockford, Ian M This thesis investigates the properties of backscattered polarized light from layered scattering media with a view to application in the imaging of in-vivo skin for medical application. The research includes investigation of numerically simulated samples, tissue phantoms and in-vivo tissue. The aim of the early research is to identify the differences in behaviour between initially linearly and circularly polarized illumination concerning the rates of depolarization with scattering. Initial examination is made through Monte Carlo simulations. The analysis yields results which indicate, for forward scattering media, circular polarizations maintain their initial state to greater depths within a scattering medium than linearly polarized light. This result is exploited to show sensitivity of the different polarizations to different layers within a medium and indicates the potential to achieve coarse optical sectioning. These fundamental properties are extended to a full field imaging arrangement, using both simulated and experimental results to illustrate polarization gating to perform subsurface object imaging in a medium composed of uniform scatterers. The concepts are extended to imaging an in-vivo sample. The removal of multiple scatter and surface reflections is performed using a combination of linearly and circularly polarized illumination coupled with image subtraction, to provide a sub-surface, localised tissue image. This provides an improvement on currently applied techniques, which use linearly polarized light and the application of a flat glass plate and matching fluid. To exploit the spectral properties of tissue, the development and construction of a fully automated, multiple wavelength, polarization imaging system, suitable for testing in a clinical setting is presented. Theoretical investigation into the potential to perform the determination of the optical properties of a two layered sample, using simulated results in-keeping with the system's detection regime, is performed. It is illustrated that the variation of top layer thickness, bottom layer scattering, top and bottom layer absorption coefficient provides well-conditioned data when combining polarization and spectral information. 2004 Thesis (University of Nottingham only) NonPeerReviewed application/pdf en arr https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/11817/1/420389.pdf Stockford, Ian M (2004) Characterisation of layered scattering media using polarized light. PhD thesis, University of Nottingham. Polarizers (light) light scattering
spellingShingle Polarizers (light)
light scattering
Stockford, Ian M
Characterisation of layered scattering media using polarized light
title Characterisation of layered scattering media using polarized light
title_full Characterisation of layered scattering media using polarized light
title_fullStr Characterisation of layered scattering media using polarized light
title_full_unstemmed Characterisation of layered scattering media using polarized light
title_short Characterisation of layered scattering media using polarized light
title_sort characterisation of layered scattering media using polarized light
topic Polarizers (light)
light scattering
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/11817/