Scattering of a laser beam in turbid media with forward-peaked Henyey-Greenstein indicatrices

The propagation of a continuous laser beam through homogeneous tissue-like liquid turbid media having sharply forward-directed Henyey-Greenstein indicatrices is studied. The in-depth on-axis and cross-sectional radial distributions of the detected forward-propagating light power are experimentally determined. The spatial distribution of the detected power is also described analytically by solving the radiative transfer equation in the so-called small-angle approximation. The experimental results are consistent with the analytical expressions obtained that are shown to allow one to estimate the extinction, reduced-scattering and absorption coefficients and the g-factor of the investigated media. (paper)