Density estimation employed in multi-pass global illumination algorithms give cause to a trade-off problem between bias and noise. The problem is seen most evident as blurring of strong illumination features. In particular this blurring erodes fine structures and sharp lines prominent in caustics. To address this problem we introduce a novel photon mapping algorithm based on nonlinear anisotropic diffusion. Our algorithm adapts according to the structure of the photon map such that smoothing occurs along edges and structures and not across. In this way we preserve the important illumination features, while eliminating noise. We call our method diffusion based photon mapping.