Speckle polarization diagnostics of scattering media using partially coherent radiation

The paper discusses a method for probing a randomly inhomogeneous medium using partially coherent radiation and polarization filtering of the radiation scattered by the medium. The method is based on the analysis of the contrast of speckle-modulated images of the object under study as a function of the coherence length of the probe radiation. A theoretical justification of the method is given as applied to systems of discrete scatterers with the subsequent modification of the results obtained for continuously distributed scattering systems. The results of experimental testing of the developed method for scattering media characterized by nondiffusion conditions of propagation of the probe radiation are presented and compared with the results of the theoretical analysis.