Matrix Method for Modeling Fluence Distributions in Anisotropic Scattering Media

Abstract

Determining the optical fluence from any source in highly scattering tissue can be a time consuming process. Previous methods have either been shown to be costly in terms of time, or produce erroneous results. Herein, the Matrix Method is proposed. This method attempts to use matrices to propagate the radiance through a highly scattering medium, returning the fluence distribution. This method is compared to the gold standard in photon transport, the Monte Carlo Method. The isotropic point source and the pencil beam simulations are used as tests. It is shown that the results from Matrix Method are similar to Monte Carlo far from the source, and that the times required for it to run are short. As well, no stochastic errors common to Monte Carlo are present in the Matrix Method.