Optical simulation of laser beam phase-shaping focusing optimization in biological tissues

In this paper we report the development of an optical simulator that can be used in the development of methodologies for compensate/decrease the light scattering effect of most biological tissues through phase-shaping methods. In fact, scattering has long been a major limitation for the medical applications of lasers where in-depth tissues concerns due to the turbid nature of most biological media in the human body. In developing the simulator, two different approaches were followed: one using multiple identical beams directed to the same target area and the other using a phase-shaped beam. In the multiple identical beams approach (used mainly to illustrate the limiting effect of scattering on the beam’s propagation) there was no improvement in the beam focus at 1 mm compared to a single beam layout but, in phase-shaped beam approach, a 8x improvement on the radius of the beam at the same depth was achieved. The models were created using the optical design software Zemax and numerical algorithms created in Matlab programming language to shape the beam wavefront. A dedicated toolbox allowed communication between both programs. The use of the two software’s proves to be a simple and powerful solution combining the best of the two and allowing a significant potential for adapting the simulations to new systems and thus allow to assess their response and define critical engineering parameters prior to laboratorial implementation.