Average intensity and scintillation of light in a turbulent biological tissue

Abstract Scintillation is one of the most important properties of light propagating through random media. The scintillation index of plane and spherical light waves as well as of a Gaussian beam propagating in the turbulent biological tissue is developed. Expressions of average intensity of Gaussian beams through turbulent tissue are also derived. Effects of the biological tissue turbulence on the average intensity and scintillation index are discussed in the numerical simulations. An analysis of the threshold between the weak and strong regimes of biological tissue turbulence is made with the variation of outer scale of turbulence. The results are of utmost importance for any applications involved light beam propagation through tissues, especially the cases where the average intensity and spreading properties of the light field should be taken into account to evaluate the system performance and investigations in the structures of biological tissue.