# Calculating coherent light-wave propagation in large heterogeneous media

## TL;DR

This paper introduces an efficient computational method for modeling light-wave propagation in large, complex, and anisotropic media, enabling detailed analysis of scattering and birefringence in biological tissues.

## Contribution

The paper presents a novel algorithm that accurately solves Maxwell's equations in arbitrary anisotropic materials, facilitating large-scale simulations of light propagation in complex media.

## Key findings

- Enables detailed modeling of light in birefringent and chiral materials
- Supports calculations in media with negative refractive index
- Improves understanding of light-tissue interactions for microscopy

## Abstract

Understanding the interaction of light with a highly scattering material is essential for optical microscopy of optically thick and heterogeneous biological tissues. Ensemble-averaged analytic solutions cannot provide more than general predictions for relatively simple cases. Yet, biological tissues contain chiral organic molecules and many of the cells' structures are birefringent, a property exploited by polarization microscopy for label-free imaging. Solving Maxwell's equations in such materials is a notoriously hard problem. Here we present an efficient method to determine the propagation of electro-magnetic waves in arbitrary anisotropic materials. We demonstrate how the algorithm enables large scale calculations of the scattered light field in complex birefringent materials, chiral media, and even materials with a negative refractive index.