Square law between spatial frequency of spatial correlation function of scattering potential of tissue and spectrum of scattered light

Spectral shifts and spectral switches of light generated by scattering of arbitrary coherent waves from a quasi-homogeneous media

Within the accuracy of the Born approximation, it is shown that the light, which is generated by the scattering of an arbitrary coherent polychromatic wave from a quasi-homogeneous (QH) media can, display both spectral shifts and spectral switches. In our study, a pair of Young's pinholes is utilized to modulate spatial coherence of the incident plane wave before it interacts with the scatterer. The spectral shifts are found to be highly dependent of the scattering angle, the correlation length of scatterer and the Young's configuration parameter. Moreover, the spectral shifts can be converted from the red shift to blue one provided that the correlation length of scatterer is small enough. Derived results are confirmed by numerical simulations where influences of various factors on the spectrum are analyzed in detail.

Differing self-similarity in light scattering spectra: a potential tool for pre-cancer detection

The fluctuations in the elastic light scattering spectra of normal and dysplastic human cervical tissues analyzed through wavelet transform based techniques reveal clear signatures of self-similar behavior in the spectral fluctuations. The values of the scaling exponent observed for these tissues indicate the differences in the self-similarity for dysplastic tissues and their normal counterparts. The strong dependence of the elastic light scattering on the size distribution of the scatterers manifests in the angular variation of the scaling exponent. Interestingly, the spectral fluctuations in both these tissues showed multi-fractality (non-stationarity in fluctuations), the degree of multi-fractality being marginally higher in the case of dysplastic tissues. These findings using the multi-resolution analysis capability of the discrete wavelet transform can contribute to the recent surge in the exploration for non-invasive optical tools for pre-cancer detection.

Determination of spatial correlation functions of refractive index of living tissue

We present what to our knowledge the first method of determination of spatial correlation functions of refractive index fluctuations of living tissues by Fourier domain optical coherence tomography (FDOCT). Based on the second-order statistical description of the random characteristic of living tissue, a formula which clearly relates the spectral electrical power from the detector to the Fourier spectrum of the refractive index correlation function is given. The method is characterized by its capability of noninvasive measurements in vivo. It has the potential of allowing quantitative discrimination between different tissue types or the same tissue at different pathological states by determining their Fourier components of spatial correlation functions of refractive index.

Quantitatively characterizing fluctuations of dielectric susceptibility of tissue with Fourier domain optical coherence tomography

A new model of Fourier domain optical coherence tomography (FDOCT) is proposed, valid within the first Born approximation, which takes the fluctuations of the dielectric susceptibility of tissue into account. It is shown that the spectral electrical power at the detector in the FDOCT system is proportional to the Fourier component of the spatial correlation function of the dielectric susceptibility of the tissue, proportional to the squares of the spectrum of the incident light field and the amplitude reflectance of the reference mirror. One possible application of the obtained result is to use the measured spectral data of the spatial correlation function of the dielectric susceptibility to quantitatively characterize properties of tissue.