Photon diffusion equation

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Photon diffusion equation is a second order partial differential equation describing the time behavior of photon fluence rate distribution in a low-absorption high-scattering medium.

Contents

Its mathematical form is as follows.

where is photon fluence rate (W/cm2), is del operator, is absorption coefficient (cm−1), is diffusion constant, is the speed of light in the medium (m/s), and is an isotropic source term (W/cm3).

Its main difference with diffusion equation in physics is that photon diffusion equation has an absorption term in it.

Application

Medical Imaging

The properties of photon diffusion as explained by the equation is used in diffuse optical tomography.

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