Mueller Matrix Analysis, Decompositions, and Novel Quantitative Approaches to Processing Complex Polarimetric Data

Mueller matrix polarimetry is being increasingly applied to the biomedical field with the purpose of obtaining microstructural information on biological samples such as tissues. There are two main experimental configurations in use: backscattering imaging of bulk tissue samples and transmission microscopic imaging of thin tissue slices. The geometries of the scattering processes contributing to each one of these two configurations impose certain constraints on the measured Mueller matrices that need to be considered for the data analysis. In this chapter, different methods for the quantitative analysis of experimental Mueller matrices are reviewed to showcase some of the most relevant quantitative approaches for obtaining rich structural information on the studied tissues.