Laser-Scanning-Optical-Resolution Photoacoustic Microscopy (LSOR-PAM) requires an ultrasound detector with a low noise equivalent pressure (NEP) and a large angular detection aperture in order to image a large field of view (FOV). It is however challenging to meet these requirements when using piezoelectric receivers since using a small sensing element size (<100μm) in order to achieve a large angular detection aperture will inevitability reduce the sensitivity of the detector as it scales with decreasing element size. Fibre optic ultrasound sensors based on a Fabry Perot cavity do not suffer from this limitation and can provide high detection sensitivity (NEP<0.1kPa over a 20 MHz measurement bandwidth) with a large angular detection aperture due to their small active element size (~10μm). A LSOR-PAM system was developed and combined with this type of fibre optic ultrasound sensor. A set of phantom studies were undertaken. The first study demonstrated that a high resolution image over a large field of view (Ø11mm) could be obtained with a sampledetector separation of only 1.6mm. In the second study, a 12μm diameter tube filled with methylene blue whose absorption coefficient was similar to that of blood was visualised demonstrating that the fibre optic sensor could provide sufficient SNR for in-vivo microvascular OR-PAM imaging. These preliminary results suggest that the fibre optic sensor has the potential to outperform piezoelectric detectors for Laser-Scanning Optical Resolution Photoacoustic Microscopy (LSOR-PAM).

Date Published: 11 March 2015
PDF: 6 pages
Proc. SPIE 9323, Photons Plus Ultrasound: Imaging and Sensing 2015, 93230Z (11 March 2015); doi: 10.1117/12.2082815

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 9323:
Photons Plus Ultrasound: Imaging and Sensing 2015
Alexander A. Oraevsky; Lihong V. Wang, Editor(s)