Monte Carlo simulation of laser beam propagation in a plane layer of the erythrocyte suspension: comparison of contributions from different scattering orders to the angular distribution of light intensity

The scattering phase functions of light are obtained for a layer of the erythrocyte suspension by the Monte Carlo method. At the erythrocyte concentration corresponding to a whole blood, these functions substantially differ from the phase function of a single erythrocyte. Contributions from the low-order and multiple scattering to the light intensity measured at different angles are compared. It is shown that scattering of light from a suspension layer of thickness of about 100 μm to the forward half-plane is mainly determined by the low-order scattering (by snake photons), whereas scattering to the back half-plane is mainly determined by multiple scattering. The possibility of using the diffuse approximation for the theoretical description of scattering is analysed.