A system and method for determining a most likely material composition of an object. At least one respective stored radiation polarization transformation is stored for at least one material composition at a plurality of wavelengths. A transmitted electromagnetic signal with at least one wavelength within the plurality of wavelengths and that has a predetermined transmitted polarization profile is transmitted. The transmitted signal encounters an object and is received as at least one received signal. Processing determines a respective received polarization for each of the at least one wavelength of the received signal, determines a respective calculated polarization transformation between the transmitted polarization profile and the received polarization of the respective wavelength, for each of the at least one wavelength. The processing also compares the respective calculated polarization transformations to the at least one respective stored radiation polarization transformations for at least one of the plurality of material compositions and based on those comparisons, estimates a most likely material composition for the object.