Optical coherence microscopy of Brownian motion as a tool for studying the effect of multiple scattering on depth penetration in turbid media

Summary form only given. It is a well-established fact that multiply scattered light degrades image contrast and resolution in confocal and optical coherence microscopes. The effects of various system parameters (e.g., pinhole diameter, NA of focusing optics) and sample optical properties on image quality were extensively studied elsewhere, but in all cases information was obtained from the light extinction in the media. Unfortunately, the exponential intensity decay obscures fine but important details about the transition from single to multiply scattered light. An experimental method that would allow detailed quantitative analysis of the few scattering events regime could provide significant insight about the degradation of image quality in highly scattering media. Our work demonstrates that imaging Brownian motion in turbid media with optical coherence microscopy is very sensitive to multiply scattered light and proves to be an excellent tool for studying the transition between the single scattering and diffusive light regimes.