Influence of particle size and concentration on the diffuse backscattering of polarized light from tissue phantoms...

We present experimental results that show the spatial variations of the diffuse-backscattered intensity when linearly polarized light is incident upon highly scattering media. Experiments on polystyrene-sphere and Intralipid suspensions demonstrate that the radial and azimuthal variations of the observed pattern depend on the concentration, size, and anisotropy factor g of the particles that constitute the scattering medium. Measurements performed on biological-cell suspensions show the potential of this method for cell characterization.