Discrimination between Doppler-shifted and non-shifted light in coherence domain path length resolved measurements of multiply scattered light

We show a novel technique to distinguish between Doppler shifted and unshifted light in multiple scattering experiments on mixed static and dynamic media. With a phase modulated low coherence Mach-Zehnder interferometer, optical path lengths of shifted and unshifted light and path length dependent Doppler broadening are measured in a two- layer tissue phantom, with a superficial static layer of different thickness covering a semi- infinite dynamic medium having identical optical properties. No Doppler broadening is observed until a certain optical path length depending on the thickness of the superficial static layer. From the minimum optical path length corresponding to the Doppler- shifted light the thickness of the static layer that overlies the dynamic layer can be estimated. Validation of the experimentally determined thickness of the static layer is done with the Doppler Monte Carlo technique. This approach has potential applications in discriminating between statically and dynamically scattered light in the perfusion signal and in determining superficial burn depths. (C) 2007 Optical Society of America.