Controlling optical properties of biological tissues: II. Coherent optical methods for studying the tissue structure

Correlation and polarization properties of dynamic speckle fields formed upon scanning in vitro human sclera samples subjected to immersion agents with a focused laser beam were studied. The immersion agent diffusion into the tissue reduces the relative refractive index of structure-forming elements (collagen fibrils) with respect to the base sclera substance and thus stimulates the passage from multiple to single scattering of a probing beam. Experimental data are presented on the evolution of the autocorrelation function of intensity fluctuations and the intensity ratio between polarized and depolarized components of laser radiation passed through a sclera layer due to artificial clarification of the tissue samples analyzed. Possible applications of the developed method to the tissue structure diagnostics are discussed.