title: Photothermal bleaching in time-lapse photoacoustic microscopy.
abstract: We studied the phenomenon of photothermal bleaching - a gradual reduction of contrast agent particles during repeated scans in photoacoustic microscopy. The dependence of the photothermal bleaching rate on the excitation pulse energy, pulse duration, and the absorber's size was determined while the laser focal diameter was held constant. Our results showed that, the dependence of the photothermal bleaching rate on the excitation pulse energy differed before and after the absorbers were raised to their melting point by the deposited laser energy. Based on this finding, we suggested an optimal excitation pulse energy, which balances the photothermal bleaching rate and signal amplitude, for time-lapse imaging applications. (© 2013 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim).
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering, Washington University in St. Louis, One Brookings Dr., St. Louis, MO, 63130, USA.
authors.forename: Liang
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.forename: Lidai
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Chiye
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Alejandro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Garcia-Uribe
authors.forename: Lihong V
authors.initials: LV
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D006046:Gold / Q000737:chemistry; D053768:Metal Nanoparticles; D008856:Microscopy, Fluorescence / Q000379:methods*; D061088:Photoacoustic Techniques / Q000379:methods*; D038761:Photobleaching; D013696:Temperature; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D006046:Gold