Although birefringence was discovered just three years after white light was separated into different colors,polarimetry has lagged behind spectroscopy in characterizing diverse materials,likely due to our naked eyes'limited sensitivity to polarizations.Recent advancements in light sources,polarization optics,detectors,displays,data processing,and feature extraction techniques are rapidly propelling polarimetry as a convenient and potent tool for probing the distinct properties of complex and turbid materials.It is well known now that polarization properties of a material encode rich information on its distinct features,including not only the bulk optical properties related with dispersions and absorptions,but also distribution and microstructural properties of the scattering particles in turbid media such as the size,shape,orientation and alignment,surface morphology and internal structure,etc.All these features can be used for differentiating different materials,sensing ambient environment around scatterers,or monitoring dynamic processes in complex systems.
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