Multispectral tissue characterization with time-resolved detection of diffusely scattered white light

A novel technique for the noninvasive measurement of tissue optical properties simultaneously at all visible and near-infrared wavelengths is presented. The technique is based on the time-resolved detection of multicolor diffusely scattered light. Short pulses of white light are produced by using self-phase modulation by focusing the light from a short-pulsed high-power laser into a cuvette filled with water. After spectral dispersion in a polychromator and temporal dispersion in a streak tube, a two-dimensional CCD camera was used as a detector, with one dimension used for time resolution and the other one for wavelength separation.