Monte Carlo for Polarized Light
The Monte Carlo program for simulating the propagation of polarized light through media was developed by Jessica Ramella-Roman, Scott Prahl and Steven Jacques, as reported in:
- Ramella-Roman JC, SA Prahl, SL Jacques: Three Monte Carlo programs of polarized light transport into scattering media: part I., Optics Express 13(12):4420-4438, 2005.
- Ramella-Roman JC, SA Prahl, SL Jacques: Three Monte Carlo programs of polarized light transport into scattering media: part II., Optics Express 13(25):10392-10405, 2005.
The movement of polarized light is treated as the propagation of a Stokes Vector of intensity, [I Q U V]T, for each of 4 sources of light, H, V, P, and R:
- H = linearly polarized parallel to scattering plane,
- V = linearly polarized perpendicular to scattering plane,
- P = linearly polarized at +45°,
- R = right circular polarized).
Hence, 16 output files are generates, HI, HQ, HU, HV, PI, PQ, PU, PV, etc., where each is the x-y map of escaping reflectance from a planar slab of tissue of specified thickness.
Jessica prepared a website where the program(s) can be downloaded: Jessica's site