Full characterization of anisotropic diffuse light

We demonstrate a method for fully characterizing diffuse transport of light in a statistically anisotropic opaque material. Our technique provides a simple means of determining all parameters governing anisotropic diffusion. Anisotropy in the diffusion constant, the mean free path, and the extrapolation length are, for the first time, determined independently. These results show that the anisotropic diffusion model is effective for modeling transport in anisotropic samples, providing that the light is allowed to travel several times the transport mean free path from the source. (C) 2008 Optical Society of America.