We report a new method for measuring particle size distribution (PSD) and refractive index of the top layer in a two-layer tissue phantom simulated epithelium tissue by varying the azimuth angle of incident linearly polarized light. The polarization gating technique is used to decouple the single and multiple scattering components in the returned signal. The theoretical model based on Mie theory is presented and a nonlinear inversion method - floating genetic algorithm - is applied to inverting the azimuth dependence of component of polarization light backscattered. The experiment results demonstrate that the size distribution and refractive index of the scatters of the top layer can be determined by measuring and analyzing the differential signal of the parallel and perpendicular components from a two-layer tissue phantom. The method implies to detect precancerous changes in human epithelial tissue.
