Laser light interaction in a strongly scattering turbid medium: theory and experiment.

The interaction of laser light and a turbid scattering medium is a complex optical problem. It remains however an important one with applications ranging from the analysis of high concentrations of particles in fluids to the optimal design of laser based surgical equipment for cutting skin tissue. Due to the complexity of the problem, statistical techniques are often used and the characteristics of the system are described by reference to scattering and absorption coefficients. Monte-Carlo based simulation techniques have proven to be very useful in understanding how such systems behave and this is the approach we adopt here. A detailed theorertical model is developed for several different scattering scenarios and simulation results are presented. This theoretical analysis is then supported with a series of experimental results. Theoretical and experimental results are then compared and discussed in the conclusion section.