Investigation of Transient Signals in Nonuniform Media Based on Diffusion Approximation

With the development of the ultra-short laser technology, a new optical detection field based on the transient laser pulse signals will emerge in the future. Ultra-short laser pulses have been used in biological fields to obtain the optical properties of vivo tissues. There are many numerical models to simulate the propagation of short laser pulses in tissue medium. However, since most biological tissues show a high scattering and low absorption characteristics for near-infrared light, the most popular model is diffusion approximation method. Although with many limitations, its greatest advantage is higher computational efficiency. The propagation of short pulse laser in two dimension nonuniform medium is simulated based on the diffusion approximation model in present paper. The numerical method is validated by comparing the numerical results with the theoretical analysis results in semi-infinite uniform slab medium. Then diffusion approximation is used to simulate the transfer process of ultra-short pulses in two dimensional inhomogeneous medium. Finally, The influences of inclusions with different sizes and optical properties on time-resolved reflected signals are presented. This can help to choose suitable detection parameters in diffuse optical tomography.