Application of polarization effects in light scattering: a new biophysical tool.

We demonstrate that a newly developed instrument which measures all polarization and intensity information contained in differentially and elastically scattered light has valuable applications in biology. The polarization states of light scattered differentially from suspensions of biological scatters are shown to contain structural information about those systems. The scatterers are discussed in the context of a 16 component matrix which completely characterizes the scattering process. The instrument and method are described in terms of the corresponding matrix algebra. We also discuss the use of the instrument as a device for distinguishing between closely related structural systems and as a tool for following time-dependent structural changes.