Effect of scattering anisotropy and material optical anisotropy of oriented fiber layers on the transmitted light polarization

The effect of polarization-dependent attenuation and birefringence of media composed of oriented fibers on the transmitted light polarization has been experimentally investigated in the visible and IR regions using the polarimetric technique based on the rotational-invariant representation. A comparison of the experimental results obtained for structures composed of layers of oriented glass and 30-μm polypropylene fibers suggests that the contributions of the polarization-dependent attenuation and birefringence of the medium to the transmitted-light polarization parameters can be differentiated. For rat-skin tissue samples, the contribution of the polarization-dependent attenuation to the polarization parameters in the visible and near-IR spectral regions is negligible.