Characterization of natural and irradiated nails by means of the depolarization metrics

Abstract

© 2016 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE).Mueller polarimetry is applied to study the samples of nails: natural (or reference) and irradiated to 2 Gy ionizing radiation dose. We measure the whole Mueller matrices of the samples as a function of the scattering angle at a wavelength of 632.8 nm. We apply depolarization analysis to measured Mueller matrices by calculating the depolarization metrics [depolarization index, Q(M)-metric, first and second Lorenz indices, Cloude and Lorenz entropy] to quantify separability of the different samples of nails under study based on differences in their Mueller matrix. The results show that nail samples strongly depolarize the output light in backscattering, and irradiation in all cases results in increasing of depolarization. Most sensitive among depolarization metrics are the Lorenz entropy and Q(M)-metric.