Abstract

The method of cost-effective upgrade from an acoustic resolution photoacoustic microscope to a triple-modality imaging system is presented. The newly-developed experimental setup is based on a diode-pumped laser coupled to a fiber bundle with a spherically focused polyvinylidene fluoride detector integrated into the center of a ring-shaped optical illuminator. Each laser pulse illuminating the sample performs two functions. While the photons absorbed by the sample provide a measurable optoacoustic (OA) signal, the photons absorbed by the detector provide the measurable diffuse reflectance (DR) from the sample and the probing ultrasonic (US) pulse. At a 3 mm imaging depth the axial resolution of the OA/US modalities is 38µm/26μm, while the lateral resolution of the DR/OA/US modalities is 3.5mm/50μm/35μm. At BIOMED conference we will present the imaging capabilities of the developed DR/OA/US system using the results on phantom and in vivo experiments. While the DR modality complements the OA one by imaging both the heterogeneities of the optical absorption and the scattering, the US modality generates higher-resolution images of the mechanical contrast providing anatomical guidance for in vivo OA studies.

© 2016 Optical Society of America