Abstract

Miniaturising ultrasonic field mapping systems could lead to novel endoscopes capable of photoacoustic tomography and other techniques. However, developing high-resolution arrays of sensitive, sub-millimetre scale ultrasound sensors presents a challenge for traditional piezoelectric transducers. To address this challenge, we conceived an ultrasonic detection concept in which an optical ultrasonic sensor array is read out using a laser beam scanned through a 0.24 mm diameter multimode optical fibre using optical wavefront shaping. We demonstrate this system enables ultrasonic field mapping with >2500 measurement points, paving the way to developing miniaturised photoacoustic endoscopes and other ultrasonic systems based on the presented concept.

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