The optical properties of the cochlear bone

The transmittance, reflectance and the angular dependence of coherent light at wavelengths of 632.8 and 750 nm in the cochlear bone in guinea pigs were measured by a single integrating sphere and a goniometer. The strict one-dimensional transport theory was applied to calculate the absorption and scattering coefficients. The Henyey-Greenstein phase function was applied to determine the anisotropy factor g, from the goniometer measurements. A linear inverse correlation was found between the calculated g and sample thickness. We found that the cochlear bone in guinea pigs strongly scatters light in the forward direction. Its absorption and scattering coefficients are much larger than those of dermis. Delrin has a similar optical absorption property to human dermis tissue.