Partial Mueller polarimetry for the complete optical diagnosis of biological tissue

Imaging Mueller polarimetry has already proved its potential for biomedical applications. However, tissue characterization utilizing all 16 elements of the Mueller matrix (MM) is not straightforward and requires data post-processing decomposition algorithms. We developed the theoretical framework and performed the experimental studies on extracting the polarimetric parameters of phantoms and biological tissue while using only part of MM elements and validating them against the results of Lu-Chipman decomposition of corresponding complete MMs. Our findings open an avenue for developing simple and compact polarimetric systems operating at video rates that can be translated to clinics for real-time tissue diagnosis and monitoring.