Supercontinuum laser based double-integrating-sphere system for measuring optical properties of highly dense turbid media in the 1300-2350nm region with high sensitivity

Accurate knowledge of the optical properties of turbid media in the light path is important in NIR absorption spectroscopy of biological tissues where multiple scattering complexes the collected light signals due to the non-uniform tissue architecture. Several approaches such as time resolved spectroscopy and spatially resolved spectroscopy have been proposed to measure the bulk optical properties of turbid media. Among them, double integrating sphere (DIS) measurements are recognized as the "golden standard" for in vitro optical properties measurement of turbid media because of its high accuracy and robustness in different conditions. A DIS system is convenient to measure the in vitro optical properties of turbid media like intralipid solutions and biological tissues, since it measures the diffuse reflectance and transmittance simultaneously. However, DIS measurements have been mostly limited to the optical window region (400-1000 nm) or suffered from low signal levels on the detectors due to the absorption by water in the NIR region. In this study, we developed a DIS system for optical property measurement in the 1300-2350 nm region based on a novel wavelength tunable spectroscopic setup which incorporates a high power broadband supercontinuum laser and a high precision monochromator. With this system, optical properties of intralipid solutions were measured in the wavelength region of 1300-2350nm.