Spatial intensity distribution of the radiative return from scattering media irradiated by a cw laser beam

Experimental measurements and theoretical description have been performed of the spatial intensity distribution of the backward radiative response of tissue-like Intralipid-20% dilutions in distilled water irradiated by a collimated near-infrared cw laser beam. The investigations performed are a first step toward a complete estimation of the feasibility and potentialities of a stationary one-sided linear-strategy biomedical tomography approach to detecting characteristic inclusions (inhomogeneities, say ill places) in homogeneous highly-scattering host media (healthy tissues). The experimental results obtained are in good agreement with the derived theoretical expressions that thus would be of importance for the development and numerical modeling of stationary tomography algorithms ensuring optimally accurate data processing and interpretation.