The capability to measure polarization properties of multiply scattered light yields several experimental observables such as optical rotation and the degree of (linear, circular) polarization. These can be used to characterize turbid media such as noninvasive detection of chiral glucose molecules in turbid biological tissues. Our experiment was to quantify the surviving linear polarization fraction and the optical rotation imposed upon a linearly polarized light beam which was passed through a reference solution of polystyrene microspheres and (l(-), d(+)) arabinose (chiral), mixture (racemic), and glycerol (achiral) substances. A chopped unpolarized HeNe laser beam of light was passed through a linear polarizer situated at to the vertical. The ray then passed through a photoelastic modulator (PEM) with its modulation axis horizontal, a modulation frequency of 50 kHz, and a retardation of 3.469 rad. The light then passed through the sample solution. A pinhole aperture was placed at to the incident beam. This aperture was then followed by another linear polarizer also called an analyzer set at which varied from to in intervals. Another pinhole aperture was placed between the analyzer and the photomultiplier tube (PMT). The signal detected at the PMT was then sent through a pre-amplifier to the lock-in amplifier where it was compared to a reference signal from the chopper. A plot of the 2f/dc ratio (the lock-in 2f reading divided by the reference dc reading) versus the analyzer angle was made for each substance. The surviving linear polarization was extracted from the fits of the data for each of the substances. The optical rotation was found to be (-3.60 .87) for the chiral l-arabinose. The polystyrene and glycerol solutions produced an optical rotation of (1.97 .81) and (2.70 1.57) respectively. This technique has the potential to allow for the extraction of the effect of the chiral constituent from depolarizing backgrounds. These preliminary values are in relatively good agreement with the values found in literature (Journal of Biomedical Optics July 2002).

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