Optical properties in the visible range of two different India ink used as biological phantoms

The optical characteristics of two different brands of India ink, Parker Quink and Pelikan, as an absorber used in preparation a tissue-simulating phantom, have been investigated at visible wavelength range. For this purpose, a single integrating sphere system and a spectrophotometric transmission spectroscopy have been used to estimate the radiometric characteristics. Then, inverse adding-doubling algorithm was implemented to retrieve the optical coefficients of pure ink samples. Parker ink's absorption behavior turned out to incompatible with Pelikan over the present wavelength range. Furthermore, scattering property of both two brands has been exhibited and the albedo was calculated. Parker albedo showed a decremental behavior with wavelength and varied between 0.381 and 0.13. A structural profile of albedo was found for Pelikan, which varied between 0.366 and 0.03. This discrepancy might be explained by the variety of two brands composition besides experimental errors. Furthermore, Parker ink absorption variation turned out to be in correspondence to several tissues' absorption feature over broad wavelength ranges. Finally, Parker ink could be regarded as a better candidate to mimic absorption property for several tissues.