Measurement of optical scattering properties with low-coherence enhanced backscattering spectroscopy

Low-coherence enhanced backscattering (LEBS) is a depth selective technique that allows noninvasive characterization of turbid media such as biological tissue. LEBS provides a spectral measurement of the tissue reflectance distribution as a function of distance between incident and reflected ray pairs through the use of partial spatial coherence broadband illumination. We present LEBS as a new depth-selective technique to measure optical properties of tissue in situ. Because LEBS enables measurements of reflectance due to initial scattering events, LEBS is sensitive to the shape of the phase function in addition to the reduced scattering coefficient (mu*(s)). We introduce a simulation of LEBS that implements a two parameter phase function based on the Whittle-Matern refractive index correlation function model. We show that the LEBS enhancement factor (E) primarily depends on mu*(s), the normalized spectral dependence of E (S-n) depends on one of the two parameters of the phase function that also defines the functional type of the refractive index correlation function (m), and the LEBS peak width depends on both the anisotropy factor (g) and m. Three inverse models for calculating these optical properties are described and the calculations are validated with an experimental measurement from a tissue phantom. (C) 2011 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). [DOI:10.1117/1.3589349]