Double integrating spheres: A method for assessment of optical properties of biological tissues

Abstract: The determination of the optical properties of biological tissue is an important issue in laser medicine. The optical properties define the tissue´s absorption and scattering behaviour, and can be expressed by quantities such as the albedo, the optical thickness and the anisotropy coefficient. During this project, a measurement system for the determination of the optical properties was built up. The system consists of a double integrating sphere set-up to perform the necessary reflection and transmission measurements, and a computer algorithm to calculate the optical properties from the measured data. This algorithm is called Inverse Adding Doubling method, and is based on a one-dimensional transport model. First measurements were conducted with the system, including measurements with phantom media (Intralipid-ink solutions) and with cartilage samples taken from the human knee joint. This work also includes an investigation about the preparation of tissue samples for optical measurements.