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All-optical optoacoustic micro-tomography in reflection mode

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Abstract

High-resolution optoacoustic imaging at depths beyond the optical diffusion limit is conventionally performed using a microscopy setup where a strongly focused ultrasound transducer samples the image object point-by-point. Although recent advancements in miniaturized ultrasound detectors enables one to achieve microscopic resolution with an unfocused detector in a tomographic configuration, such an approach requires illuminating the entire object, leading to an inefficient use of the optical power, and imposing a trans-illumination configuration that is limited to thin objects. We developed an optoacoustic micro-tomography system in an epi-illumination configuration, in which the illumination is scanned with the detector. The system is demonstrated in phantoms for imaging depths of up to 5 mm and in vivo for imaging the vasculature of a mouse ear. Although image-formation in optoacoustic tomography generally requires static illumination, our numerical simulations and experimental measurements show that this requirement is relaxed in practice due to light diffusion, which homogenizes the fluence in deep tissue layers.

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Code Availability

The data files generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on a reasonable request.

Abbreviations

AR-PAM:

Acoustic Resolution Photoacoustic Microscopy

BP:

Back Projection

MZI:

Mach Zehnder Interferometer

NEP:

Noise Equivale Power

OAT:

Optoacoustic Tomography

PA:

Photo Acoustics

SPADE:

Silicon-Photonics Acoustic Detector

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Acknowledgements

We thank the Micro-Nano Center at the Technion for the use of the clean room facilities for the SPADE fabrication.

Funding

This work has received funding from the Israel Science Foundation (1709/20 A.R.).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Andrew and Erna Viterbi Faculty of Electrical & Computer Engineering, Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Technion City, Haifa, 32000, Israel

    Tamar Harary, Yoav Hazan & Amir Rosenthal

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  1. Tamar Harary
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  2. Yoav Hazan
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  3. Amir Rosenthal
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Correspondence to Tamar Harary.

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Harary, T., Hazan, Y. & Rosenthal, A. All-optical optoacoustic micro-tomography in reflection mode. Biomed. Eng. Lett. 13, 475–483 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13534-023-00278-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13534-023-00278-8

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