Imaging and multiple scattering through media containing optically active particles

This paper examines the behaviour of polarized light scattered by a medium containing small chiral spheroidal particles. We show that for single scatt ering the observed phenomena of optical activity may be interpreted in term s of an averaged Mueller matrix and describe how the degree of polarization is affected by such a medium. The polarization properties of multiply scat tered light by chiral particles are considered through the use of Monte Car lo simulations. It is shown that the effects of chirality under multiple sc attering can be interpreted as an order-preserving influence in a disordere d system and that this influence can, in principle, be exploited for the pu rposes of imaging.