T f r d i h

science, technology, medicine, and the natural environment, invasive optical monitoring of the glucose level in diabetic Journal of Biomedical Optics 7(3), 291–299 (July 2002)and include such diverse systems as interstellar gases, biologi-cal tissues, turbulent flows, colloidal suspensions, and micro-crystalline solids. Optical examinations of these random me-dia are challenging due to extensive multiple light scattering which scrambles potentially useful sample information en-coded in the light beam. For example, most biological tissues are highly scattering at visible and near-infrared ~IR! wavelengths,1 so quantitative tissue spectroscopy and imaging are difficult. In recent investigations researchers have at-tempted to utilize the polarization properties of light to probe biological tissues and other random media, since diffusely scattered light is often partially polarized to an extent that can be experimentally detected. Several research groups are thus investigating the response of turbid media to polarized ligh