Scientific article
OA Policy
English

Adding scattering for photon migration : exact identities and experimental validation

Published inOptics express, vol. 34, no. 16, p. 28836-28857
Publication date2026-08-10
First online date2026-07-27
Abstract

Exact identities for radiative transfer are derived in scattering and absorbing media that relate emitted, received, and absorbed power (in the full domain or in arbitrary sub-volumes) to two trajectory statistics: the mean optical pathlength ⟨ ⟩ traveled by photons and the mean number of scattering events ⟨ k ⟩. For the received signal, the logarithmic derivatives with respect to absorption and scattering take particularly simple forms. In the continuous-wave case, ln ⁡( P R )/ μ a =−⟨ R and ln ⁡( P R )/ μ s =⟨ kR / μ s −⟨ R , with analogous relations for time-resolved measurements. The second identity implies a counter-intuitive and yet highly consequential fact: the difference ⟨ kR / μ s −⟨ R is generally nonzero, which is required to ensure that the detected signal is sensitive to scattering variations. Motivated by this observation, we formalize an “adding scattering” protocol, analogous to established adding-absorption approaches, to estimate scattering sensitivity via finite-difference changes in μ s in both Monte Carlo simulations and experiments. The predicted relations are validated via independent Monte Carlo implementations and with measurements in calibrated liquid phantoms. Finally, the role of these identities as exact benchmarks for forward solvers in photon migration studies is discussed.

Funding
  • European Union’s - NextGenerationEU, National Recovery and Resilience Plan [MNESYS, PE0000006 (DN. 1553 11.10.2022)]
  • Ministero dell'università e della ricerca [2022EB4B7E [CUP B53D23002530006]]
Citation (ISO format)
MARTELLI, Fabrizio et al. Adding scattering for photon migration : exact identities and experimental validation. In: Optics express, 2026, vol. 34, n° 16, p. 28836–28857. doi: 10.1364/OE.578876
Main files (1)
Article (Published version)
Identifiers
Journal ISSN1094-4087
1views
0downloads

Technical informations

Creation27/07/2026 17:19:26
First validation14/08/2026 09:04:40
Update14/08/2026 09:04:40
Status update14/08/2026 09:04:40
Last indexation14/08/2026 09:04:41
All rights reserved by Archive ouverte UNIGE and the University of GenevaunigeBlack