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Graphics-processing-unit-accelerated Monte Carlo simulation of polarized light in complex three-dimensional media
Shijie Yan1, Steven L Jacques2, Jessica C Ramella-Roman3
1Northeastern University, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Boston, Massachusetts, United States.
Journal of Biomedical Optics
|May 10, 2022
Summary
A new polarized Monte Carlo (MC) algorithm models light interaction in complex 3D biological tissues. This efficient simulation tool, MCX, significantly accelerates polarized light studies in biophotonics.
Area of Science:
- Biophysics
- Optical Engineering
- Computational Science
Background:
- Monte Carlo (MC) methods are crucial for simulating polarized light interactions in biological tissues.
- Existing MC codes often approximate realistic tissue structures by limiting simulations to homogeneous or multi-layered domains.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop a highly efficient, hardware-accelerated MC simulation algorithm for modeling polarized light in 3D heterogeneous biological tissues.
- To overcome the limitations of current MC codes in handling complex tissue geometries for polarization studies.
Main Methods:
- Developed a polarized MC algorithm for arbitrarily complex, voxelated media with spherical scatters.
- Implemented the algorithm in the Monte Carlo eXtreme (MCX) simulator.
- Updated the Stokes vector of photon packets during propagation for spatially resolved polarization measurements.
Main Results:
- Achieved a 931-fold speedup compared to a reference CPU-based simulator.
- Validated the algorithm's accuracy in homogeneous and layered domains against a reference simulator.
- Demonstrated the capability to model polarized light in complex 3D heterogeneous tissues.
Conclusions:
- The polarization-enabled MCX provides an efficient tool for biophotonics research.
- This algorithm enables accurate exploration of polarized light interactions in realistic biological tissues.
- MCX is freely available, facilitating wider adoption in the biophotonics community.
