Light Propagation Through Biological Tissue and Other Diffusive Media: Theory, Solutions, and Software

This book provides foundational information on modeling light propagation through diffusive media, with special emphasis on biological tissue. A summary of the theoretical background on light propagation through diffusive media is provided with the aid of easy-to-use software designed to calculate the solutions of the diffusion equation. The book also provides: the basic theory of photon transport with the analytical solutions of the diffusion equation for several geometries; detailed coverage of the radiative transfer equation and the diffusion equation; the theories and the formulae based on the diffusion equation that have been widely used for biomedical applications; the general concepts and the physical quantities necessary to describe light propagation through absorbing and scattering media; and, a description of the software provided on the CD-ROM, along with the accuracy of the presented solutions. Although the theoretical and computational tools provided with this book and CD-ROM have their primary use in the field of biomedical optics, there are many other applications in which they can be used, including agricultural products, forest products, food products, plastic materials, pharmaceutical products, and many others.