Direct measurement of the scattering coefficient

Abstract

In general, the measurement of the main three optical properties (µ _a , µ _s and g) in turbid media requires a very precise measurement of the total transmission (TT), the total reflection (TR) and the collimated transmission (CT). Furthermore, an inverse algorithm such as inverse adding doubling or inverse Monte-Carlo-simulations is required for the reconstruction of the optical properties. Despite many available methods, the error free measurement of the scattering coefficient or the g-factor still remains challenging. In this study, we present a way to directly calculate the scattering coefficient from the total and collimated transmission. To allow this, it can be shown that $\frac{TT}{CT}$ is proportional to $e^{{\mu }_s\cdot d}$ for a wide range of optical properties if the sample is thick enough. Moreover, a set-up is developed and validated to measure the collimated transmission precisely.