Short pulse laser propagation through tissues

An experimental and numerical study is performed to analyze short pulse laser propagation through tissue phantoms without and with inhomogeneities/tumors imbedded in it. Short pulse laser probing techniques has distinct advantages over conventional very large pulse width or cw lasers primarily due to the additional information conveyed about the tissue interior by the temporal variation of the observed signal. Both the scattered temporal transmitted and reflected optical signals are measured experimentally using a streak camera for samples irradiated with a short pulse laser source. Parametric study involving different scattering and absorption coefficients of tissue phantoms and inhomogeneities as well as the detector position and orientation is performed. The temporal and spatial profiles of the scattered optical signals are compared with the numerical modeling results obtained by solving the transient radiative transport equation using discrete ordinates technique.

Duke Scholars

Author Tuan Vo-Dinh Biomedical Engineering