Reverse Monte Carlo simulations of light pulse propagation in nonhomogeneous media

This paper presents a follow-up study of our previous work on the reverse Monte Carlo solution of transient radiation transport in the homogeneous media. In this study, the method is extended to consider nonhomogeneous media, which exist in many practical problems. The transport process of ultra-short light pulse propagation inside the non-emitting, absorbing, and anisotropically scattering multi-layer media is studied. Although only one-dimensional geometry is treated here, the method is applicable and easy to extend to multi-dimensional geometries. In multi-layer media, the time-resolved reflectance exhibits a direct correlation between the signal magnitude and the travel time to the layer interface if the ballistic photons encounter a strongly scattering layer. Furthermore, it is found that even with a symmetric radiative property distribution in a three-layer medium, the reflectance and transmittance signals do not converge at long time when the mid-layer is optically thick. The long time slope of the temporal signal does not provide the specificity required for an inverse analysis parameter as stipulated by earlier studies. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.