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The analytic analysis expression from the previous page indicates that the predicted behavior of reflectivity (ρ [dimensionless]) and attenuation (μ [cm^-1]) is:

ρ ≈ μ_s L_focus f

μ ≈ a μ_s z_f 2 G

For a range of optical properties μs and g values, the predicted values of observed μ and ρ were generated and overlaid on the data as a grid. The grid suggests that the optical properties of all the tissues are in the range of 300-600 cm-1, and the anisotropy g varies broadly from 0.90-0.99. These preliminary results suggest that anisotropy g is a quite variable optical property that strongly influences the signals obtained in confocal microscopy. An experimental measurement of an agarose gel containing 0.1-μm-diameter polystyrene microspheres (μs = 97 cm-1, g = 0.11, based on transmission experiments and Mie theory calculations) is shown (black solid circle) and properly locates near its predicted values of μs and g.

(Click on figure to expand) y-axis: Attenuation, atten = μ [cm-1] x-axis: Reflectivity, refl = ρ [dimensionless]

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