Inverse method analysis in optothermal skin measurements

Abstract

We present a new scheme for the inverse analysis of opto- thermal transients that is able to calculate initial temperature profiles from noisy data, despite the ill- conditioning. It is particularly useful for tackling problems where the inhomogeneities of the sample are insufficiently well understood, such as the diffusion of externally applied substances through skin or skin pigment depth profiling. We present the mathematical approach, supported with examples of analyses of in-vivo opto-thermal measurements.