Nonlinear Phenomena in Complex Systems, 2012, Vol.15, No.4, pp.395-402

NONLINEAR PHENOMENA IN COMPLEX SYSTEMS
An Interdisciplinary Journal

2012, Vol.15, No.4, pp.395-402

Modeling of Light Propagation in Turbid Media: Application to Biological Tissues.
Oleg G. Romanov, Alexei L. Tolstik, Felix Fanjul-Velez, Noe Ortega-Quijano, Irene Salas-Garcia, and Jose Luis Arce-Diego

Light propagation in turbid media is specifically relevant in the field of biomedical optics, as biological tissues are strongly turbid media. Diagnostic or treatment applications require information regarding the spatial distribution of optical energy. This is crucial for planning the therapeutic effect or the quality of the diagnostic images obtained. In this work we compare two numerical approaches for light propagation in biological tissues: the Monte Carlo approach, and the approach based on direct numerical solution of Maxwell equations by finite-difference time-domain method. The results of both approaches are discussed.

Key words: FDTD method, Monte Carlo method, turbid media, scattering

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