Abstract

Light propagation in high dispersive media such as biological tissues is characterized by two principal phenomena: absorption and scattering. Transfer Radiative Equation (TRE) is a phenomenological equation that describes light behavior in such media. We developed a calculation code for absorption and scattering simulation of a white light beam into human skin. We obtain this way, a solution for the time-dependent TRE. We also model a cancer tumor inside human skin and we observed light behavior by its presence. Skin is approximated as a seven-layered medium where their absorption μ_a, scattering μ_s, and anisotropy g coefficients depend on anatomic characteristics. We calculated energy flux absorbed (Wavelength Absorbance) and reflected (Wavelength Reflectance) by skin in function of each wavelength present on white light beam. We have obtained that the less absorbed wavelengths are in range [425–438 nm] that correspond to blue color. On the other hand, the most absorbed wavelengths are located in orange-red spectral range (λ > 600 nm).

© 2008 Optical Society of America