Signification of the phase function parameter gamma explored with a fractal distribution of scatterers

The optical properties within limited volumes of diffusive media can be probed by carrying spatially-resolved measurements of diffused light at short source-detector separation (typically one scattering mean free path). At such distance, analytical models only relying on the absorption and reduced scattering coefficients fail at correctly predicting reflectance and it was demonstrated that adding a third optical coefficient γ improves the description of light propagation conditions near the source. In an attempt to relate the γ coefficient to physical properties of turbid media, this paper uses a fractal distribution law for modeling scatterers’ sizes distributions and investigates numerically and experimentally how γ is related to the fractal power α. The results indicate that within the range of γ typically encountered in biological samples, this coefficient is approximately linearly correlated with α.