Theoretical and experimental study of the effect of laser heating on the optical characteristics of human skin

The results of a theoretical and experimental study of the effect of laser heating on the optical characteristics of human skin are discussed. For the first time in an in vivo experiment, the dependence of the reflectance spectrum of human skin when heated by laser radiation with a wavelength of 980 nm was measured. Within the framework of a numerical seven-layer optical computer model of human skin, an interpretation of the experimental results is given, and it is shown that the change in reflectance observed in the experiment may be associated with the conversion of skin blood hemoglobin into methemoglobin.