4x3 Mueller matrix imager for cervical health diagnosis

Invasive cervical cancer is a slow progressing disease, taking more than 10 years to fully develop from infection. The anatomic accessibility and possible treatment of precancerous lesions make early screening a suitable and effective management. An imager based on Mueller matrix polarimetry consisting of a polarization state generator of four input polarization states and a polarization state analyzer on board of the detector, a polarized camera, is introduced. A 4x3 reduced form of the Mueller matrix is decomposed to extract polarimetric parameters such as the retardance, depolarization and orientation. The use of this device on biological samples is tested.