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Pulsed photothermal temperature profiling of agar tissue phantoms

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Abstract

We determine experimentally the accuracy of pulsed photothermal radiometric (PPTR) temperature depth profiling in water-based samples. We use custom tissue phantoms composed of agar gel layers separated by very thin absorbing layers. Two configurations of the acquisition system are compared, one using the customary spectral band of the InSb radiation detector (3.0–5.5 μm) and the other with a spectrally narrowed acquisition band (4.5–5.5 μm). The laser-induced temperature depth profiles are reconstructed from measured radiometric signals using a custom minimization algorithm. The results correlate very well with phantom geometry as determined by optical coherence tomography (OCT) and histology in all evaluated samples. Determination of the absorbing layer depth shows good repeatability with spatial resolution decreasing with depth. Spectral filtering improves the accuracy and resolution, especially for shallow absorption layers (∼120 μm) and more complex structures (e.g., with two absorbing layers). The average full width at half maximum (FWHM) of the temperature peaks equals 23% of the layer depth.

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Acknowledgment

The authors thank Prof. Bernard Choi for help with PPTR instrumentation, Dr. Jeehyun Kim for assistance with OCT imaging, and Lih-Huei L. Liaw, MS, for expertise regarding histology. This project was supported by the Slovenian Research Agency, National Institutes of Health (AR47551 and AR48458), and Beckman Laser Institute institutional support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Jožef Stefan Institute, Jamova 39, 1000, Ljubljana, Slovenia

    Matija Milanič & Boris Majaron

  2. Beckman Laser Institute, University of California, Irvine, CA, 92612, USA

    Boris Majaron & J. Stuart Nelson

  3. Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of California, Irvine, CA, 92612, USA

    J. Stuart Nelson

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  1. Matija Milanič
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  2. Boris Majaron
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  3. J. Stuart Nelson
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Correspondence to Matija Milanič.

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Milanič, M., Majaron, B. & Nelson, J.S. Pulsed photothermal temperature profiling of agar tissue phantoms. Lasers Med Sci 22, 279–284 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10103-007-0455-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10103-007-0455-9

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