Abstract

Diffuse Photon Density Waves (DPDWs) have lately been used to characterize diffusive media to locate and characterize hidden objects, such as tumors, in soft tissue. Measurements are often taken in the exterior non-diffuse medium, and therefore, the DPDW suffers reflection at the interface. To analyze these, the basic expressions for the reflection and transmission coefficients for diffuse/non-diffuse interfaces are put forward. Interesting effects on the reflected DPDW occur for certain values of the diffusive parameters, which significantly distort the incident DPDW. Also, the expression for the transmission coefficient can also be used to determine the value of the extrapolated distance, or, if this parameter is known, the source shape and its position.

© 2000 Optical Society of America