Non-contact laser ultrasound

Abstract: Full non-contact laser ultrasound (LUS) imaging has several distinct advantages over current medical ultrasound (US) technologies: elimination of coupling mediums (gel/water), operator-independent image quality, improved repeatability, and volumetric imaging. Current light-based ultrasound utilizing tissue penetrating photoacoustics (PA) generally uses traditional piezoelectric transducers in contact with the imaged tissue or carries an optical fiber detector close to the imaging site. Unlike PA, LUS minimizes optical penetration and specifically restricts optical to acoustic energy transduction at the tissue surface, maximizing the generated acoustic source amplitude. LUS operates analogous to conventional ultrasound by using light to replace piezoelectric elements. Experimental LUS images at ~5 cm image depths with meter scale standoff successfully demonstrates the feasibility of LUS for human imaging at eye and skin safe optical exposure levels. First human LUS images inspire further LUS development and is a significant step toward clinical implementation of LUS.

BiologyComputer sciencePhysics

Audience: general audience

SENSE.nano Symposium from MIT.nano