# Applications of Mueller Matrix Polarimetry to Biological and Agricultural Diagnostics: A Review  
[PERSON]  
1 Prokhorov General Physics Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Vavilova St. 38, 119991 Moscow, Russia; [EMAIL_ADDRESS] (D.N.I. ); [EMAIL_ADDRESS] (S.V.G.) 2 Laser Physics Department, National Research Nuclear University MEPH, Kashiskoke Sh. 31, 115409 Moscow, Russia 2  
[PERSON]  
1 Prokhorov General Physics Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Vavilova St. 38, 119991 Moscow, Russia; [EMAIL_ADDRESS] (D.N.I. ); [PERSON]EMAIL_ADDRESS] (S.V.G.) 2 Laser Physics Department, National Research Nuclear University MEPH, Kashiskoke Sh. 31, 115409 Moscow, Russia 2  
[PERSON]  
3 Federal State Budgetary Scientific Institution \"Federal Scientific Agroengineering Center VIM\" (FSAC VIM), 109428 Moscow, Russia; [EMAIL_ADDRESS] 3  
[PERSON]  
1 Prokhorov General Physics Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Vavilova St. 38, 119991 Moscow, Russia; [EMAIL_ADDRESS] (D.N.I. ); [PERSON]EMAIL_ADDRESS] (S.V.G.) 2 Laser Physics Department, National Research Nuclear University MEPH, Kashiskoke Sh. 31, 115409 Moscow, Russia 2  
Footnote 2: email: {j.l.j. polarimetric methods can be generalized by the Mueller matrix formalism, and that generalization is termed Mueller matrix polarimetry (MMP) [6; 7; 8; 9; 10; 11; 12; 13]. In the case of a scattering medium, a light scattering matrix (LSM), defined in the sense of the Mueller matrix (MM), is directly influenced by the physical characteristics of the scatterers and is very sensitive to the optical properties, shape and size distribution of scattering particles [3; 4; 5; 14; 15; 16; 17; 18]. Thus, it is possible to obtain these characteristics by solving the inverse scattering problem. For example, when their size exceeds the wavelength of light, it becomes possible to determine whether they are separate monolithic particles or aggregates of particles smaller than the wavelength. Elucidation of the features of the angular and spectral dependences of matrix elements for various kinds of dispersed system, taking into account the aggregation of particles in the dispersed phase, makes it possible to develop a method for retrieving the parameters of the microphysical structure of the investigated dispersed system from the measured values of the Mueller matrix elements. More specifically, we can determine the number, size of particles and their state of aggregation. MMP has recently begun to find wide application in many fields of science and technology, including physical chemistry, geophysics, biomedicine and pharmacology, technological control, environmental monitoring and agriculture. Non-destructive diagnostic methods based on the measurement of the Mueller matrix elements are widely used to obtain information on the properties of colloidal solutions and suspensions, rough surfaces of materials, nanoparticle coatings and composite materials, which can be multilayer systems of discrete scattering particles, as well as to study microbiological systems and biological tissues. These methods are relatively inexpensive to implement and can be easily automated, allowing quick results in laboratory research, industry or the field. So, technologies based on MMP are already being developed for non-destructive analysis in biology, biomedicine and agriculture. There are quite a few thorough reviews describing the current state of MMP for biomedical applications [19; 20; 21; 22; 23; 24; 25]. However, when covering the principles of MM measurements, error analysis, optimization, calibration and, importantly, approaches to extracting practical information from the measured Mueller matrices, they mainly focused on the diagnostics of biological tissues. Our review aims to fill a gap in the available MMP reviews by focusing on MM-based detection and characterization of microbiological entities, bioorganic solutions and dispersions, films and bulk materials.