The most favorable path method for the propagation of light in scattering media: a finite element solution

We present an approach to the problem of light propagation in turbid media based on the diffusion equation. The most favorable path over which photons can be found can be obtained from the path of the net flux propagation. The diffuse intensity and the direction of the net flux flow can be calculated with the finite element method, which can deal with heterogeneous problems and frequency domain problems within complex geometry, and can introduce boundary effects as well. Simulations were conducted for phantoms with different parameters and source-detector separations. Experiments have been performed to verify this new method.