Estimation of light transport parameters in biologicalmedia using coherent backscatteringS ANANTHA RAMAKRISHNA* and K DIVAKARA RAOLaser Programme, Centre for Advanced Technology, Indore 452 013, India Abstract The suitability of using the angular peak shape of the coherent backscattered light for estimating the light transport parameters of biological media has been investigated. Milk and methylene blue doped milk were used as tissue phantoms for the measurements carried out with a He-Ne laser (632.8 nm). Results indicate that while the technique accurately estimates the transport length, it can determine the absorption coefficient only when the absorption is moderately high (a > 1 cm-1) for the long transport lengths typical of tissues. Further, the possibility of determining the anisotropy factor by estimating the single scattering contribution to the diffuse background is examined. Keywords Coherent back scattering; light transport; tissue optics.Pacs No 42.25.Bs; 42.62.Be; 87.63.Lk |