title: Breaking the acoustic diffraction limit via nonlinear effect and thermal confinement for potential deep-tissue high-resolution imaging.
abstract: Our recently developed ultrasound-switchable fluorescence (USF) imaging technique showed that it was feasible to conduct high-resolution fluorescence imaging in a centimeter-deep turbid medium. Because the spatial resolution of this technique highly depends on the ultrasound-induced temperature focal size (UTFS), minimization of UTFS becomes important for further improving the spatial resolution USF technique. In this study, we found that UTFS can be significantly reduced below the diffraction-limited acoustic intensity focal size via nonlinear acoustic effects and thermal confinement by appropriately controlling ultrasound power and exposure time, which can be potentially used for deep-tissue high-resolution imaging.
authors.affiliation: Ultrasound and Optical Imaging Laboratory, Department of Bioengineering, The University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, Texas 76019, USA and Joint Biomedical Engineering Program, The University of Texas at Arlington and The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, Dallas, Texas 75390, USA.
authors.forename: Baohong
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Yuan
authors.forename: Yanbo
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Pei
authors.forename: Jayanth
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kandukuri