Object reconstruction in scattering medium using multiple elliptical polarized speckle contrast projections and optical clearing agents

• Imaging object hidden in a scattering medium by combining multiple elliptical polarized speckle projections and optical clearing agents.
• Experiments were conducted on prostate cancer tumor embedded within ex vivo biological samples.
• Tumor can be revealed at various depths with reasonable SNR and contrast.

In this paper, we present a hybrid method for improving the imaging quality of objects obscured within a scattering environment by combining multiple elliptical polarized speckle contrast projections with the use of optical clearing agents (OCAs). Elliptically polarized light enables the probing of subsurface volumes, where OCAs decrease light scattering while increasing photons׳ penetration depth through the medium. Experiments were conducted on object sample and prostate cancer cells embedded within ex vivo biological samples (chicken breasts) in reflection configuration. After immersion with OCAs, the medium was irradiated with an elliptically polarized laser beam and multiple polarized speckled images obtained from a lens array were first converted to speckled contrast images and then processed using a self-deconvolution shift-and-add algorithm. The conversion to contrast images and multiple perspectives acquisition was found to emphasize contrast. Analysis of image quality indicated improvement in object visualization by the combination of elliptical polarization and OCAs. This enhanced imaging strategy may advance the development of improved methods in biomedicine field, specifically biomedical tomography.