906 Vol. 41, No.
5 / March 1 2016 / Optics Letters
Polarization modulation for imaging behind
the scattering medium
NIRAJ KUMAR SONI, R. V. VINU, AND RAKESH KUMAR SINGH*
Applied and Adaptive Optics Laboratory, Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology (IIST),
Trivandrum, Kerala 695547, India
*Corresponding author: krakeshsingh@iist.ac.in
Received 30 September 2015; accepted 15 January 2016; posted 22 January 2016 (Doc. ID 251085); published 19 February 2016
We propose and experimentally demonstrate a technique,
based on polarization modulation, for imaging of the
polarization discriminating object hidden behind a scatter-
ing medium. This is realized by making use of the relation
between the complex correlation function of the randomly
scattered orthogonal polarization components in the far
field and polarized source structure at the scattering plane.
Full use of a polarimetric parameter at the scattering plane
is realized in the object plane reconstruction behind the
scattering medium using a backpropagation approach. To
demonstrate application of the technique, imaging of
two different objects lying behind the scattering media is
presented. © 2016 Optical Society of America
OCIS codes: (030.6140) Speckle; (090.1995) Digital holography;
(110.0113) Imaging through turbid media.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1364/OL.41.000906
Imaging of objects hidden in a randomly scattered field is a
long sought after goal, and such situations occur in various
cases, for instance, in biomedical imaging, imaging through
fog, and astronomy. Random scattering of coherent light by inho-
mogeneous media has detrimental impacts on imaging, owing
to distortion of the wavefront. The random scattering of coher-
ent light creates a complex interference pattern, termed speckle,
which encrypts the object information and makes direct imag-
ing a difficult task [1,2]. Object information is scrambled in the
speckle pattern but not completely lost, which can be recovered
by reversing the scattering process. A number of methods have
been proposed to help one unscramble the object details from
the far-field speckle pattern, which employ holography [3–5],
adaptive optics [6–8], nonlinear optics [9], correlation optics
[10], and others. It has been observed that, with proper wave
shaping, a random scattering medium can work as a thin lens
[11]. Intensive efforts have been employed to reverse the focus-
ing effect of the scatterers in random media by effective inver-
sion of the spatial distortion with the help of spatial light
modulators. Applications of such methods are demonstrated
in imaging through random media and bring about a high
degree of control over the scattered light’s spatiotemporal dis-
tribution [12], polarization [13,14], and transmitted energy
0146-9592/16/050906-04$15/0$15.00 © 2016 Optical Society of America
Letter
distributions in the near field [15]. On the other hand, statis-
tical approaches offer alternative methods for imaging through
random media and can also be applied in situations where
microstructural knowledge of the scatterer is impossible or
impractical to glean [2,10]. Averaging the fluctuating scattered
light through, say, correlation has been employed to image the
hidden nonstochastic objects. Correlation of the speckle pat-
tern, which reveals the inherent “memory” in the pattern, en-
ables recovery of the object information behind the scattering
media by optimization techniques, with the help of techniques
such as guided star [16], angular scanning [17], and iterative
methods [18]. Recently, the holographic principle in combina-
tion with correlation optics is applied for imaging through a
random scattering layer, and the technique is applied for the
recovery of complex valued objects and in quantitative phase
imaging, through a random screen [19,20].
Polarization is another fundamental property of light which
makes direct impact on the image reconstruction and can have
a significant and nontrivial effect on high-level visual percep-
tion, such as color vision [21,22]. For instance, polarization
vision has special utility in seeing the otherwise obscured
object, and some animals make use of patterns of polarized light
in the field of vision to perceive certain image features within
the field. Polarization sensory as a sensory modality in the
aquatic environment is commonly used for discrimination
purposes [23]. For instance, aquatic environments are rich in
polarized light patterns and create a background polarized field
against which objects, which diffuse or differentially reflect
polarized light, can be viewed. On the other hand, polarization
selectivity has also been used for interferometric and imaging
applications with the help of a plasmonic platform [24,25]. For
instance, anisotropic behavior of nanoparticles on the plas-
monic platform provides high resolution imaging [25].
Polarization discrimination has been used to build the interfer-
ometer into the microscope so that the two “arms” of the inter-
ferometer follow a common path as long as possible. This is
possible by building a polarization interferometer. For instance,
in the measurement of highly anisotropic nanoparticles, no sep-
aration between the two orthogonal beams is required in the
microscope because one polarization will scatter off of the sam-
ple, whereas the other will be unaffected [26]. On the other
hand, propagation of polarization light through a rough surface
 Letter Vol. 41, No. 5 / March 1 2016 / Optics Letters 907

Z     
or random media is also common in practice, and random scat- 2π
tering of polarized waves generate spatially inhomogeneous E p r 0   ˜ exp −i r˜ · r̂ dr˜ expikz r̂z
E p r
λf
polarization distributions, which cloak the information bearing  
distribution, which is useful for imaging. For retrieving 2π
× exp i r 0 · r˜ dr̂: (2)
useful information from temporally fluctuating random fields λf
[27–31] emanating from random media with dynamics, tech- Here, λ is wavelength of the coherence light, k z r̂ 
niques such as depolarization, polarization gating, and polari- q ffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
r̂
2ffi
zation discrimination have been widely used in the background
2π
λ 1− f .
of applications in imaging and sensing. Similarly, polarization The orthogonal polarization components further propagate
fluctuations also exist in the spatial domain. In spite of its prac- down to the random scattering plane, and complex field is
tical importance and common occurrence in nature, this area given as [34]
(extracting information bearing components from speckle pat-
2 Z
2
π r̂ πr
terns), shrouded as it is by fluctuating polarization patterns, E p r̂  exp i E p r o  exp i o
appears to have attracted very little attention. In situations λf λf
in which the scattering process is approximated to have ran-

2π
domness only at its spatial evolution (i.e., when its temporal × exp −i r o · r̂ dr o ; (3)
λf
evolution is deterministic), one can fall back on wave shaping
[13] to answer the fluctuating spatial distributions originating where r̂ is transverse spatial coordinate at the random scattering
in random scattering. In this, it has been proven that polariza- plane as shown in Fig. 1. Scattered field at the Fourier trans-
tion modulation can also be used for focusing spatially random forming plane of the lens is given as
scattered fields [32]. If such “wave shaping” can be realized by Z  
2π
tailoring polarization, polarization modulation is also expected E p r  E p r̂ expiφp r̂ exp −i r̂ · r dr̂; (4)
to play a major role in the imaging through a scattering λf
medium. where r is the transverse position vector at the Fourier plane, f
Our objective in this Letter is to demonstrate the role of is the focal length of the lens, and φp r̂ is the random phase of
polarization modulation in depth-resolved imaging of objects birefringence-free scattering medium, i.e., φx r̂  φy r̂.
hidden behind a random scattering medium without using a Assuming spatial stationarity and ergodicity in space for the
guided star or wavefront shaping. This is realized by detecting speckle field and noting that r 2  r 1  Δr, correlation of
the polarization modulation of light at the scattering plane and the orthogonal polarization components at the Fourier plane
backpropagating it using the wave-propagation approach [33]. is given by [34]
Averaging the fluctuating orthogonally polarized components
light through, say, spatial correlation is employed to recover the W xy Δr  hE x r 1 E y r 1  ΔriS
polarized source at the scattering plane. The polarimetric param- Z  
2π
eters at the scattering plane are obtained by taking the inverse  E x r̂E y r̂ exp −i Δr · r̂ dr̂; (5)
Fourier transform of the complex correlation function [34]. λf
The experimental implementation of the proposed technique, where h·iS are spatial averages as a replacement of the ensemble
along with detailed theoretical explanation, is given below. averages. The term E x r̂E y r̂  I r̂, which is the image-
Consider illumination of an object by coherent light at a dis- bearing component in the polarization modulation at the
tance d (f
z) from the scattering plane as shown in Fig. 1, and scattering plane and is retrieved by inverse Fourier transform
the complex field at the object plane is represented as of a complex correlation of Eq. (5). Importantly, Ir̂ is a com-


 plex quantity composed of the product of complex amplitude
E x r;
˜ z ˜ iφr˜
Ox re
 : (1) distributions of the orthogonal polarization components.
E y r;
˜ z Oy r
˜
Therefore, the technique can be used for depth reconstruction
The object is considered to have polarization-dependent behind the scattering medium for certain class of polarization-
transmittance O P r;
˜ z (p denotes orthogonal polarization discriminating objects. For this purpose, we consider an object
components x or y) at z ≠ 0, r˜ is transverse spatial coordinates.
The polarimetric phase φr
˜ and amplitude Op are considered
to be deterministic. The complex field E p r 0  at the (x, y,
z  0) plane is given as
Fig. 1. Schematic diagram illustrating the imaging problem.
 
Ox r o e iφr o 
function , i.e., it is ensured that one of the
1
polarization components of the light remains unmodulated
even after passing through the object.
Let us now turn attention to the imaging of an object lying
at a certain distance behind the random scattering plane. The
experimental procedure employed can be understood by the
schematic diagram shown in Fig. 2. A 45° linearly polarized
He–Ne laser (632.8 nm) is filtered and collimated by spatial
filter assembly (SF) and lens L1. The collimated beam splits
into two by a beam splitter BS1. The reflected beam, called
reference, enters into a triangular Sagnac interferometer com-
posed of a polarization beam splitter (PBS) and a telescopic lens
system. The PBS in the triangular Sagnac interferometer splits
the beam into two counter-propagating orthogonal polarization
components, and the mirrors M1 and M2 provide different tilts
 908 Vol. 41, No. 5 / March 1 2016 / Optics Letters Letter

the speckle. The polarization modulation recovered from the

Fig. 2. Experimental setup of proposed technique. HWP, half-wave
plate; SF, spatial filter; BS, beam splitter; SLM, spatial light modulator;
PBS, polarization beam splitter; CCD, charge coupled device; M1,
M2, mirrors; L1, L2, L3, L4, lens; GG, ground glass.
inverse Fourier transform of the complex correlation function
is used to digitally backpropagate the complex field at the object
plane lying behind the scattering media with the help of propa-
gation kernel expik z r̂z.
Experiments were carried out for two objects, and their
phase structures are shown in Fig. 3. Figure 3(a) is the helical
phase structure with accumulated 2π phase variation around a
singular point. Figure 3(b) shows an object with phase profile
“IIST” and binary phase variation π and −π. The object is
loaded onto the SLM, which is equivalent to manipulating
the polarimetric parameters of the reflected light.
In both cases, the phase object displayed on the SLM (Pluto)
is located at the distance 200 mm from the ground glass plate.
The interference patterns of the randomly scattered fields for
two different cases of the objects are shown in Figs. 4(a)
and 4(b). Small portions of the interferogram marked by a rec-
tangle in the figure highlight fringes over the speckles.
Figures 4(a) and 4(b) show interferograms at the camera
plane for vortex and IIST, respectively. Amplitude distributions

to the polarization components coming out of the interferom-

eter. The Sagnac geometry used in the experimental procedure
generates the orthogonal polarization states with different spa-
tial carrier frequency, and this provides a single shot measure-
ment of the orthogonal polarization components of the field.
The transmitted beam from BS1 passes through the beam split-
ter BS2 and illuminates the reflective-type spatial light modu-
lator (SLM). The SLM is from Holoeye (PLUTO-VIS) with
1920 × 1080 resolution and pixel pitch of 8.0 μm and is
used to display and input the phase object to the beam.
Consequently, the object information is transferred into one Fig. 3. Object displayed on the reflective type SLM (Pluto) and
of the polarization components of the light. The beam prop- (a) phase mask of vortex with topological charge one (b) phase mask
of letters IIST; circle highlight region of illumination of the object by
agates further down to the scattering media and is randomly
coherent light.
scattered at the Fourier transforming plane of the lens L4.
The distance between object plane (SLM) and ground glass
is 200 mm. In the experiment, the static ground glass (GG)
simulates a nonbirefringent scattering media that scrambled
the polarized light into the speckle pattern. The direct record-
ing and reconstruction of the object information is not possible
due to the scrambling of object information in the recording
plane. The scattered field from ground glass and the reference
beam coming from the Sagnac interferometer are combined us-
ing beam splitter BS3 and superimposed at the focal plane of
lens L4. Referring to Fig. 2, the interference of the scattered
field with the reference beam produces an interference mesh
that is captured by CCD at the Fourier plane of lens L4.
The CCD camera is from Pixelfly-qe with 640 × 480 pixels
and a 9.9 μm pixel pitch. The interference mesh is composed of
the interference of the orthogonal polarized components.
Desired tilt inserted into the orthogonal polarization compo-
nents creates a spatial frequency multiplexed interferogram
to distinguish the Fourier spectrum of the speckles of the
polarization components. The spatial frequency multiplexing
is crucial to retrieving the complex fields of the orthogonal
polarization components in a single-shot recording of the scat- Fig. 4. (a) and (b) Interference of the randomly scattered field with
tered field. Complex orthogonal polarization components of polarized reference beam. For object (a) vortex with 2π phase varia-
the speckle pattern at the CCD plane are retrieved from the tion; and (b) IIST phase structure. (c) and (d) Normalized amplitude
interference mesh. Correlation of the orthogonal polarization distribution of the correlation function of the orthogonally polarized
components is obtained from the spatial averages, and these random fields at the Fourier plane for object (c) vortex with 2π phase
are considered the same as those from ensemble averages of variation and (d) “IIST” phase structure.
 Letter
Fig. 5. (a) and (b) Recovered amplitude and phase distribution of
the polarimetric parameter I r̂. Arrow shows images proportional to
the phase distributions (i.e., polarimetric phase) at the ground glass; for
(a) vortex (b) IIST. (c) and (d) Imaged complex valued object at the
SLM plane, i.e., at z  200 mm from the ground-glass plane; arrow
represents phase distribution of the recovered object (a) vortex and
(b) letter IIST.
of the complex correlation functions are shown in Figs. 4(c) and
4(d) for the two objects. Singnature of the vortex is captured
in the correlation function [as shown in Fig. 4(c)], in spite of
complete scrambling of the object information into the random
pattern. Amlitude distribution of the correlation function for
the object IIST is shown in Fig. 4(d). Physical dimensions
in Figs. 4(c) and 4(d) are in units of pixel number wherein
the unit pixel size is 9.9 μm and the origin, i.e. (Δx  0,
Δy  0) is located at pixel coordinates (50,50). The complex
correlation function is inverse Fourier transformed, and polar-
imeteric paramater I r̂ is recovered. Due to the presence of
residual speckle noise in the polarimetric paramerts, it is diffi-
cult to use noisy data for backpropagating the complex field at
the object plane. Therefore, we generate ten independent
speckle patterns by illuminating different portions of the
ground glass with the polarized object beam and complex cor-
relation function, and subsequently, polarization parameters are
obtained from the averaged data.
The amplitude and phase distributions of the two recovered
polarization parameter distributions are shown in Figs. 5(a) and
5(b). The insets in the figure, as pointed by arrows, reveal the
phase structures carried by the polarimetric parameter. The
complex fields shown in Figs. 5(a) and 5(b) are backpropagated
to different depths behind the scattering medium using an
angular spectrum propagation method. The complex field dis-
tributions thus recovered at the SLM plane are shown in
Figs. 5(c) and 5(d) for two objects. The recovered image of the
vortex is shown in Fig. 5(c), which shows that residual phase
shift of the Fig. 5(a) is gone at the correct imaging plane. The
reonstructed image of the object IIST is shown in Fig. 5(d).
In conclusion, we have developed a technique for imaging
from the randomly scattered field using the polarization-
discriminating nature of the object. The principle of the technique
Vol. 41, No. 5 / March 1 2016 / Optics Letters 909
is based on the use of correlation of the orthogonally polarized
components of light, which also carries with it the information
pertaining to the object. Experimental demonstration of the
imaging behind the scattering medium is presented, and the
role of polarization encoding in achieving depth-resolved
reconstruction behind the scattering media is brought forth.
The presented technique is expected to play an important
role in “time-reversal” imaging through the scattering medium,
in which polarization discrimination of the light would play a
major role.
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