Influence of Boundary Reflection and Refraction on Diffusive Photon Transport

Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Penn collection
Department of Physics Papers
Degree type
Discipline
Subject
Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Physics
Funder
Grant number
License
Copyright date
Distributor
Related resources
Contributor
Abstract

We report computer simulations which test the accuracy of the diffusion theories used in the analysis of multiple light scattering data. Explicitly including scattering anisotropy and boundary reflections, we find that the predicted probability for transmission through a slab is accurate to 1% if the slab thickness is greater than about 5 transport mean free paths. For strictly isotropic scattering and no boundary reflections, the exact diffusion theory prediction is accurate to this level for all thicknesses. In addition, we predict how the angular distribution of transmitted photons is affected by boundary reflectivity, both with and without refraction. Simulations show that, to a similar extent, corrections to diffusion theory from a more general transport theory are not needed here, either. Our results suggest an experimental means of measuring the so-called extrapolation length ratio which characterizes boundary effects, and thus have important implications for the analysis of static transmission and diffusing-wave spectroscopy data.

Advisor
Date Range for Data Collection (Start Date)
Date Range for Data Collection (End Date)
Digital Object Identifier
Series name and number
Publication date
1994-08-01
Journal title
Physical Review E
Volume number
Issue number
Publisher
Publisher DOI
Journal Issue
Comments
At the time of publication, author Douglas J. Durian was affiliated with University of California, Los Angeles. Currently, he is a faculty member at the Physics Department at the University of Pennsylvania.
Recommended citation
Collection