Features of the attenuation and single-sided imaging potential of near-infrared laser radiation in tissue-like liquid turbid media

Tissue-like phantoms are important tools in studying light propagation and scattering in biological tissues and in the development, testing and calibration of novel optical diagnostic and therapeutic methods and instruments. This motivates the interest in characterizing the optical properties of tissue-simulating turbid media. In the present work, using an original approach, the specific features have been revealed experimentally and interpreted physically (as owing to the polydispersity of the ensemble of scatterers) of the generally non-linear behaviour of the extinction (total attenuation) coefficient of Intralipid-20% dilutions in distilled water, depending on the Intralipid concentration, for near-infrared laser radiation of different wavelengths. At relatively low incremental concentrations, the values obtained of the extinction coefficient are shown to increase linearly being in agreement at each wavelength of concern with results for the integral scattering coefficient predicted by empiric formulae found by other authors. Comparative estimation has been performed as well, depending on the radiation wavelength, of the potentialities of single-sided optical sensing of tissue-like media. The estimates obtained outline the advantage of the wavelengths around the upper limit of the tissue optical window.