Development of an acoustic-resolution photoacoustic microscope

Olivier Simandoux , Jean-Marie Chassot , Emmanuel Fort , Emmanuel Bossy (1)

1 IL - Institut Langevin - Ondes et Images (UMR7587)

Photoacoustic imaging is a recent, rapidly growing imaging technique. It has the unique ability to provide images in soft tissues in the optically diffusive regime with both optical absorption contrast and ultrasound resolution. One of the photoacoustic imaging modalities is called acoustic-resolution photoacoustic microscopy. It is aiming at resolution from a few microns to 100 microns over depths up to a centimeter. In this work, a photoacoustic microscope using a mechanically scanned single element focused transducer is described. The following characteristics of our microscope are studied: image contrast, signal-to-noise ratio, resolution and acquisition time, and imaging depth. Images are made at different optical wavelength ranging from 532nm to the near-infrared of the therapeutic window. This set-up is intended to image tumor model on small animals.

Mots clés: photoacoustic; microscope

Domaines: Acoustique [physics.class-ph]

Olivier Simandoux, Jean-Marie Chassot, Emmanuel Fort, Emmanuel Bossy. Development of an acoustic-resolution photoacoustic microscope. Acoustics 2012, Apr 2012, Nantes, France. ⟨hal-00811171⟩