Characterization of luminescence in a scattering medium

Abstract

A system (20) of the present invention includes light source instrumentation (30) to selectively illuminate a light scattering medium including a luminophore and detection instrumentation (50) to detect multiply scattered light output from the medium in response to illumination by the light source instrumentation (30). A processor (70) is operatively coupled to the detection instrumentation (50) to determine a first optical characterization of the medium from a first multiply scattered light output of a first illumination light wavelength and a second optical characterization of the medium from a second multiply scattered light output of a second illumination light wavelength different than the first illumination light wavelength. The processor (70) is operable to calculate lifetime of the luminophore from the first optical characterization, the second optical characterization, and a multiply scattered emission of the luminophore from the medium in response to excitation.