We describe a method for increasing target contrast within a turbid medium by means of the polarization state of the scattered light. The backscattered Mueller matrices for various concentrations of 0.1-μm spherical scatterers were measured with and without a painted metal target. Simple discrimination based on detecting cross-polarized intensities is shown to be more effective than the use of total intensity information. As a result, the choice of polarization state is dictated primarily by the requirement to maximize depolarization at the target, This in general means that circularly polarized light is the optimum choice.
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