White Monte Carlo for time-resolved photon migration

A novel scheme for fully scalable White Monte Carlo (WMC) has been developed and is used as a forward solver in the evaluation of experimental time-resolved spectroscopy. Previously reported scaling problems are avoided by storing detection events individually, turning spatial and temporal binning into post-simulation activities. The approach is suitable for modeling of both interstitial and noninvasive settings (i.e., infinite and semi-infinite geometries). Motivated by an interest in in vivo optical properties of human prostate tissue, we utilize WMC to explore the low albedo regime of time-domain photon migration-a regime where the diffusion approximation of radiative transport theory breaks down, leading to the risk of overestimating both reduced scattering (mu(s)') and absorption (mu(a)). Experimental work supports our findings and establishes the advantages of Monte Carlo-based evaluation. (C) 2008 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers.