title: Non-contact photoacoustic imaging using a fiber based interferometer with optical amplification.
abstract: In photoacoustic imaging the ultrasonic signals are usually detected by contacting transducers. For some applications contact with the tissue should be avoided. As alternatives to contacting transducers interferometric means can be used to acquire photoacoustic signals remotely. In this paper we report on non-contact three and two dimensional photoacoustic imaging using an optical fiber-based Mach-Zehnder interferometer. A detection beam is transmitted through an optical fiber network onto the surface of the specimen. Back reflected light is collected and coupled into the same optical fiber. To achieve a high signal/noise ratio the reflected light is amplified by means of optical amplification with an erbium doped fiber amplifier before demodulation. After data acquisition the initial pressure distribution is reconstructed by a Fourier domain reconstruction algorithm. We present remote photoacoustic imaging of a tissue mimicking phantom and on chicken skin.
authors.affiliation: Research Center for Non-Destructive Testing GmbH (RECENDT), Altenberger Straße 69, 4040 Linz, Austria.
authors.forename: Armin
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hochreiner
authors.forename: Johannes
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Bauer-Marschallinger
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Burgholzer
authors.forename: Bernhard
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Jakoby
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Berer
keywords: (110.2350) Fiber optics imaging; (110.7170) Ultrasound; (120.0280) Remote sensing and sensors; (120.3180) Interferometry; (140.4480) Optical amplifiers; (170.1470) Blood or tissue constituent monitoring; (170.5120) Photoacoustic imaging