City Research Online

Abstract

Short-wave infrared (SWIR) spectroscopy has shown great promise in probing the composition of biological tissues. Currently there exists an enormous drive amongst researchers to design and develop SWIR-based optical sensors that can predict the concentration of various biomarkers non-invasively. However, there is limited knowledge regarding the interaction of SWIR light with vascular tissue, especially in terms of parameters like the optimal source-detector separation, light penetration depth, optical pathlength, etc., all of which are essential components in designing optical sensors. With the aim to determine these parameters, Monte Carlo simulations were carried out to examine the interaction of SWIR light with vascular skin. SWIR photons were found to penetrated only 1.3 mm into the hypodermal fat layer. The highest optical pathlength and penetration depths were seen at 1mm source-detector separation, and the lowest being 0.7mm. Although the optical pathlength varied significantly with increasing source-detector separation at SWIR wavelengths, penetration depth remained constant. This may explain why collecting optical spectra from depth of tissue at SWIR wavelengths is more challenging than collecting optical spectra from near-infrared wavelengths, where both the optical pathlength and penetration depth change rapidly with source-detector separation.

Publication Type:	Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)
Additional Information:	© 2021 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works.
Publisher Keywords:	Water, Spectroscopy, Biomedical optical imaging, Monte Carlo methods, Systematics, Optical design, Optical sensors
Subjects:	Q Science > QH Natural history > QH301 Biology T Technology > TA Engineering (General). Civil engineering (General)
Departments:	School of Science & Technology > Engineering

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