THE USE OF DIFFUSERS IN THE MEASUREMENT OF TRANSMISSION OF HUMAN EPIDERMAL LAYERS

Abstract— The transmission of the outermost layers of human skin is measured, by use of a diffuser. The sample is transferred to the diffuser and inserted into the measuring beam. The reference beam is also measured after passing through the diffuser. The diffuser transforms the light in both the sample and reference beams into a completely diffuse flux. The radiant flux of light emerging from the diffuser is directly proportional to the radiant flux of the light impinging on the diffuser, but does not depend on the angular distribution of the impinging light. Because of this particular property, a diffuser may be used to measure the transmission of scattering specimens. The analogy between a diffuser and an integrating sphere is pointed out. Deviations of commercially available diffusers from the perfect behaviour lead to deviations in the measured transmissions that are negligible (< 3%) for epidermal and corneal samples. Spectral transmission data from representative skin samples are presented. It is found that correction for fluorescence is necessary. Due to this correction the epidermal UV‐C transmission is lower by a factor of 10–100 than without correction, and the epidermal absorption maximum is shifted from 275 towards 265 nm.