THE INFLUENCE OF SOUND-SCATTERING ON THE ACOUSTOBRIGHTNESS TEMPERATURE

In order to clarify the physical basis of acoustothermography, the inf luence of sound scattering on the acoustobrightness temperature is con sidered. A theoretical model of the contribution of scattering process es to the acoustobrightness temperature is proposed and two cases are investigated for a heated sample immersed into a cold medium: a scatte ring layer and a narrow prolate sample. For the first case, the scatte ring process slightly affects the acoustic temperature, whereas for th e second case a substantial decrease of this parameter is possible. Th e experimental study of the acoustobrightness temperature, conducted i n scattering biological tissues, broadly confirms the theoretical resu lts.