Figure 1.

(a) Cross-section of laser-irradiated tissue. (b) Schematic illustrations of the photothermal responses and the corresponding changes in the tissue’s optical properties and structure during laser irradiation. The changes in the tissue’s optical properties and structure affect the light distribution in the tissue. The broken lines indicate the point at which $\mathrm{\Omega }=1$, i.e., where $\alpha =63\%$. $\mathrm{\Omega }$: damage parameter; $\alpha$: ratio of thermally-damaged tissue; ${\mu }_{\mathrm{s}}^{\prime }(\alpha )$: reduced scattering coefficient; and ${\mu }_{\mathrm{a}}(\alpha )$: absorption coefficient.