Photoacoustic (or optoacoustic) microscopy has great potential as a diagnostic tool in biomedical research. For in vivo imaging, an important requirement is to keep the measurement time as short as possible. In light-sheet photoacoustic microscopy (LIS-PAM) a cylindrical lens illuminates a thin section perpendicular to the sample surface with a short laser pulse and a projection of the excited acoustic wave pattern leaving the sample is recorded with a camera. From the recorded data, a B-scan photoacoustic image is obtained by applying a two-dimensional reconstruction algorithm, without requiring any mechanical scanning. Hence, LIS-PAM is capable of real-time B-scan imaging with acoustical resolution within the individual B-scans and optical out of plane resolution up to a depth limited by optical diffusion. A 3D image is composed of reconstructed B-scan images recorded while scanning the excitation line along the sample surface. Using a camera with 200 Hz frame rate a C-scan image (5x5 mm² field of view) can be recorded in less than 5 seconds (without averaging). The achievable sensitivity and resolution of the optical phase contrast detection system were estimated theoretically with 0.34 kPa mm without averaging and 30 μm, respectively. A first experiment on a phantom that mimics tissue properties shows the applicability of this technique for in-vivo imaging.

Date Published: 15 March 2016
PDF: 6 pages
Proc. SPIE 9708, Photons Plus Ultrasound: Imaging and Sensing 2016, 97082E (15 March 2016); doi: 10.1117/12.2209478

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 9708:
Photons Plus Ultrasound: Imaging and Sensing 2016
Alexander A. Oraevsky; Lihong V. Wang, Editor(s)