Fig. 1. Light scattering diagram

Fig. 2. Micro-image of yeasts. (a) Lager yeast; (b) Ale yeast; (c) bud cluster of Ale yeast

Fig. 3. Optical models of yeasts. (a) Yeast monomer; (b) budding yeast; (c)(d) yeast cluster

Fig. 4. Schematic diagram of experimental principle. (a) Configuration of optical system of the DIFC with incident light along the z-axis (perpendicular to the flat page, outward); (b) experimental images with polarization direction of scattered light marked at upper left; (c) simulated images with polarization direction of scattered light marked at upper left and the parameters of optical models marked below the images, respectively

Fig. 5. Variation of normalized polarized diffraction image (p-DI) of optical models of different yeasts, each p-DI is marked with its parameter variable at upper left. (a) Yeast monomer with same A value of 1.25, the dashed arrows indicate the direction of increase of θ and ϕ; (b) yeast monomer with same b value of 7.5 μm; (c) budding yeast with same b value of 6 μm, same A value of 1.3, same γ value of 90°; (d) budding yeast with same b value of 7 μm, same A value of 1.3, same b_r value of 1

Fig. 6. Partial correlations analysis of the structural parameters of budding yeast and texture feature parameters of polarized diffraction image

Fig. 7. Budding rate statistic of yeasts. (a) Confusion matrix of SVM classifiers; (b) result comparison of budding rate of five groups of yeast samples

Fig. 8. Power spectra of p-DI of yeasts with different b values at A=1.25

Fig. 9. Short-axis size analysis of yeast monomer. (a) Power fit of short-axis size b and normalized frequency; (b) statistical histogram of short-axis size distribution of yeast

Fig. 10. Influence of aspect ratio of yeast on depolarization coefficient