Optical coherent detection in non-spatially uniform beams propagating through highly scattering media is achieved by performing wave mixing in an optically addressed spatial light modulator (OASLM) with a contin- uous reference and a speckled signal beam. Thanks to its intrinsic nonlinear dynamics, the OASLM adjusts its properties with sub-ms response time following the phase and intensity changes of the interacting beams. It, therefore, filters out low frequency modulations and noise effects. A phase modulation on the speckled signal is directly transformed into intensity modulation and recorded on the plane reference wave at the exit of the OASLM. Applications include dynamic holography and imaging in biomedical tissues and turbid media.
Acousto-optic imaging of absorbing objects embedded in highly scattering media remains challenging since the detectable signal which is suitable for image reconstruction is weak. Yet, significant improvements were made possible by the joint use of (i) a newly developed and characterized high peak-power laser diode source and (ii) the Fourier Transform Acousto-Optic Imaging (FT-AOI) technique. Albeit FT-AOI was previously reported and demonstrated state-of-the-art performances in real-time imaging, the technique was nevertheless only remonstrated for low-scattering phantoms. Here, we highlight that using a 9 W high-peak power, while maintaining an average power below 1W, proved the ability of the overall setup to probe highly scattering media at video frame rate.
Two-wave mixing adaptive interferometer based on photorefractive crystal allows for compensation of temporal disturbances in ambient environment and operation with speckled beams. The crystal should exhibit large effective trap density, low dark conductivity and large photoconductivity. Deliberately doped semiconductor may meet these requirements. In the present work the photorefractive, spectroscopic and magneto-optical study of CdTe:Sn is performed aiming to estimate these characteristics and to describe the space-charge formation. The photon energies for optical ionization/neutralization of the tin ions are estimated. The crystal is characterized as a medium for two-wave mixing adaptive interferometer with excellent performance.
Nowadays imaging the early liver metastases has to be improved in order to have an easier setup than MRI or to be more discriminant than ultrasound between healthy and diseased tissues. Acousto-optic imaging could solve these issues by coupling itself with ultrasound modality: the additional optical contrast would suppress the indetermination on the health of the biological tissue.
Acousto-optic imaging is a multi-wave technique which localizes light in very scattering media thanks to an acoustic wave: the acousto-optic effect creates frequency-shifted light, carrying local information about the insonified volume. The central challenge of acousto-optic imaging is the detection of the frequency-shifted light, because there are only very few modulated photons and they create a speckle pattern. We choose to explore the detection by spectral filtering using the spectral hole burning process in rare earth doped crystal [1].
Spectral hole burning consists in creating a sub-MHz-wide transparency window in the wide absorption spectrum of a rare earth doped crystal: the crystal becomes transparent at the wavelength of the spectral hole and thus can filter the modulated light. This filtering technique is intrinsically immune to speckle decorrelation and therefore well adapted to in vivo imaging.
We use a YAG crystal doped with thulium ions under a magnetic field which increases the lifetime of the spectral hole from 10ms to longer than a minute. We have undertaken a spectroscopic study to optimize the hole preparation sequence. The long lifetime simplifies the optimization of fast imaging sequences, making real-time acousto-optic imaging reachable. We will present the first acousto-optic images achieved with a long-lived spectral filter in Tm:YAG, in a scattering medium.
[1] Li, Y., Zhang, H., Kim, C., Wagner, K. H., Hemmer, P., & Wang, L. V. (2008). Pulsed ultrasound-modulated optical tomography using spectral-hole burning as a narrowband spectral filter. Applied physics letters, 93(1), 011111.
Acousto-optic imaging is a multi-modal imaging technique where coherent light diffusing in a complex medium is ‘tagged’ over time by a ballistic ultrasound pulse of frequency ωus. The photons which paths cross with the ultrasound pulse undergo the acousto-optic effect, resulting in the frequency shift of ωus that can be selectively detected using heterodyne interferometry. Since the ultrasounds propagate at a known velocity, a time-to-space map of the tagged photons results in an image I(x, z), where x is the lateral direction and z the depth direction of the diffuse medium. Images at propagation depths much greater than the average mean free path, typically ~1mm in biological tissue, can be obtained. In most images obtained so far, the ultrasounds are focused line after line to recover an image, and therefore limited by the probe emission rate which is ~1-10 KHz depending on the probe size and the acoustic pulse power. Therefore, in order to acquire acoustic images at frame rates greater than 1 Hz for ‘direct visualization’ of the system under study, it is crucial to minimize the number of individual acquisitions necessary to reconstruct an image.
Here, we present an alternative probe configuration where plane waves emitted at various angles are used rather than focused waves to tag the diffuse light. This approach, first proposed by P.Kuchment and L.Kunyansky (2010), is similar to X-ray tomography since the image information is contained in the various angular scans performed for one acquisition. Because the piezo-elements on the acoustic probe are non-isotropic emitters, the angular scan is typically limited to +/20 degrees, which is sufficient to recover information and can be improved using more than one probe. An inversion algorithm based on inverse Radon-transform is than used to reconstruct the image
Imaging and identifying early metastases is, to this day, not an easy task: using MRI is expensive and ultrasound is not able to discriminate healthy and diseased tissues. Coupling ultrasound imaging to acousto-optic imaging could be a solution: the additional optical contrast would suppress the indetermination on the origin of the biological tissue.
Acousto-optic imaging is a multi-wave technique which localizes light in highly scattering medium thanks to an acoustic wave: the acousto-optic effect creates frequency-shifted light, carrying local information about the insonified volume. The central challenge of acousto-optic imaging is the detection of the frequency-shifted light, because there are only very few modulated photons and they create a speckle pattern. We choose to explore the detection by spectral filtering using the spectral hole burning phenomenon in a rare earth doped crystal [1]. This filtering technique is intrinsically immune to speckle decorrelation and therefore well adapted to in vivo imaging.
We use a YAG crystal doped with thulium ions under a magnetic field which increases the lifetime of the spectral hole from 10ms to more than a minute. We have undertaken a spectroscopic study to optimize the hole preparation sequence. We will present the first acousto-optic images achieved with a long-lived spectral filter in Tm:YAG, in a scattering medium.
[1] Li, Y., Zhang, H., Kim, C., Wagner, K. H., Hemmer, P., & Wang, L. V. (2008). Applied Physics Letters, 93(1), 011111.
Acousto-optic imaging (AOI) is an emerging technique in the field of biomedical optics which combines the optical
contrast allowed by diffuse optical tomography with the resolution of ultrasound (US) imaging. In this work we report
the implementation, for that purpose, of a CMOS smart-pixels sensor dedicated to the real-time analysis of speckle
patterns. We implemented a highly sensitive lock-in detection in each pixel in order to extract the tagged photons after
an appropriate in-pixel post-processing. With this system we can acquire images in scattering samples with a spatial
resolution in the 2mm range, with an integration time compatible with the dynamic of living biological tissue.
Optical phase conjugation is a technique that could find many applications in medical imaging and industry. However, state of the art techniques are limited in speed, portability and efficiency. Especially for digital optical phase conjugation, the electronic delays for image readout on a camera and addressing a spatial light modulator make this technique unpractical for phase conjugation in biological medium. Furthermore, the calibration of such a system is a very complex and expensive task. Thus, we propose integrating on the same device a camera and a liquid crystals spatial light modulator to achieve phase control thanks to in-pixel processing of a photodiode signal.
We present a CMOS light detector-actuator array, in which every pixel combines a spatial light modulator and a photodiode. It will be used in medical imaging based on acousto-optical coherence tomography with a digital holographic detection scheme. Our architecture is able to measure an interference pattern between a scattered beam transmitted through a scattering media and a reference beam. The array of 16 μm pixels pitch has a frame rate of several kfps, which makes this sensor compliant with the correlation time of light in biological tissues. In-pixel analog processing of the interference pattern allows controlling the polarization of a stacked light modulator and thus, to control the phase of the reflected beam. This reflected beam can then be focused on a region of interest, i.e. for therapy. The stacking of a photosensitive element with a spatial light modulator on the same chip brings a significant robustness over the state of the art such as perfect optical matching and reduced delay in controlling light.
Acousto-optic imaging is based on ultrasound modulation of multiply scattered light in thick media. We experimentally
demonstrate the possibility to perform a self-adaptive wave-front holographic detection at 790 nm, within the optical
therapeutic window where absorption of biological tissues is minimized. A high-gain Te-doped Sn2P2S6 bulk crystal is
used for this purpose. We image optical absorbing objects embedded within a thick scattering phantom by use of pulsed
ultrasound to get a dynamic millimetric axial resolution. Our technique represents an interesting approach for breast
cancer detection.
Thulium-doped crystals are considered for programmable filtering. Such a filter can be achieved by Spectral Hole Burning (SHB). One optically pumps the active ions into a long-lived shelving state, opening a narrow transparency window in the crystal absorption band. We investigate a new shelving scheme in Tm:YAG where the thulium ions are pumped into a ground state nuclear Zeeman sublevel, instead of their natural 10ms-lifetime metastable state. The shelving time is increased to several seconds, reducing the residual population in the transparency window by orders of magnitude. This should enhance the filter's dynamic range, which is essential in demanding filtering applications like ultrasound optical tomography.
Ultrasound focusing through complex media can be achieved using time-reversal techniques. These techniques make use of back-propagating ultrasonic waves generated by localized sources. Such sources generally consist of high acoustic contrasts echoing ultrasonic waves generated by an incident ultrasonic field, or directly by point-like transducers inserted at the desired focusing location. In this work, we experimentally investigate time-reversal of acoustic waves generated by photo-acoustic emission. A frequency-doubled Q-switched Nd:YAG laser was used to illuminate phantom with 5-ns laser pulses. A 128-element ultrasonic transducer array, with a center frequency of 1.5 MHz, was used to detect acoustic waves generated by optically absorbing targets suspended in water. A dedicated 32-channel electronics was used to time-reverse and re-emit the detected ultrasonic field. Gel spheres dyed with India ink (diameter approximately 1-2 mm)illuminated by the laser beam were used to generate the photo-acoustic waves. Time-reversal of the detected field was performed to focus ultrasound in the presence of highly defocusing media in front of the transducer array. We demonstrate how this allows correcting for the aberration in order to provide good quality images in the isoplanetic region surrounding the photo-acoustic source.
Interferometric measurements for in-vivo imaging of biological tissues are strongly sensitive to the related speckle decorrelation time tc, whose effect is to reduce the contrast of the speckle pattern at the exit of the sample and thus blur detection. Though
acousto-optic imaging is a well suited technique for the case of
thick tissues, it has been shown that an acquisition rate in the
1-10kHz range is required for a good efficiency. We have previously built for this purpose an holographic setup that combines a fast but large area single photodetector and a photorefractive crystal, in order to measure a real-time acousto-optic signal by the so-called self-adaptive wavefront holography technique. In such a configuration, one critical point is the time response tPR of the
photorefractive effect, which depends on the photorefractive
configuration of the setup as well as the light intensity within
the crystal. We have developed an original in situ method that determines this time in measuring the acousto-optic response through a combination of an amplitude modulation of the ultrasound and a frequency de-tuning of the reference beam. We can measure precisely this time but also monitor it according to a theoretical model that we have previously described. This offers the possibility to adapt the response of the setup to the decorrelation time of the medium under study, and also to have a measurement of τc.
We present a new detection scheme for acousto-optic tomography, based on pseudo-random modulation of the utlrasound and illumination combined with hterodyne parallel speckle detection. This setup allows to perform tomographies inside several centimeter-thick scattering sample. Test experiments confirm the suitability of this method to perform tomographies inside various types of optically scattering media.
We present a new detection scheme for acousto-optic tomography,
based on pulsed-wave ultrasound and illumination combined with
heterodyne parallel speckle detection. This setup allows to
perform tomographies inside several centimeter-thick scattering
samples. Test experiments confirm the suitability of this method
to perform tomographies inside various types of optically
scattering media, including liquids.
A new concept of acousto-optical imaging is emerging based on an interferometric setup containing a photorefractive crystal as the
recombination plate, and a single detector. This wavefront-adaptive holography technique is promising since the measurements are made in real-time with a high flux collection and at a high rate, faster than the speckle decorrelation time. We present here a detailed model that describes correctly the measured signal, whether in a temporal phase or amplitude modulation of the ultrasound.
The Acousto-optical imaging technique in scattering media can be explained by using the concept of a virtual light source moving inside the medium. Its emission depends on the local optical properties of the insonified area, making it an interesting candidate for in-depth tissue (several centimeters)probing. Evidence of this statement in the restrictive case of a chirp-reduced-size virtual source is shown using a technique that records a film during one chirp modulation of the imaging system. A Fast Fourier Transform treatment correlates the Fourier spectrum of time-sampled transmitted light to the position of the source along the ultrasonic beam, revealing its millimetric size.
Although tumors can show important contrast in their optical
properties at an early stage of development, they are difficult to
image optically due the diffusive nature of biological tissues. Such tumors can also be detected by "classical" ultrasound (US) imaging, but the acoustic constrast is often weak at early stages. Acousto-optical (AO) imaging combines light and ultrasound : light carries the desired information and ultrasound provides the spatial resolution. Based on a previous work made by the group of L.V. Wang, we present AO images obtained with chirped US. This modulation of the US frequency allows to encode a spatial region of the medium in the frequency spectrum of the AO signal. We can then obtain
the optical contrast along the US path with improved resolution. The
technique was apply to the imaging of buried objects in phantoms and
to the vizualization of the "virtual source".
This paper contains two main sections. In the first one, we illustrate the technological interest of crystals of the sillenite family and we present our powerful methods of investigation in some details. These are essentially optical absorption and magnetic circular dichroism at liquid helium temperatures, down to 4000 cm-1. The latter is also used to detect electron paramagnetic resonance optically and to tag a given absorption component to a specific paramagnetic, intrinsic or extrinsic, defect. In the second part, we present a variety of experimental results and interpretations dealing with undoped crystals and with samples doped with transition ions of the iron (Mn, Cr, Fe, Co, Cu) group. Emphasis is put on the assignment of ligand field bands in the near infrared, since these are used to monitor the site, charge state, and amount of the dopants in a thermally bleached state or after various illuminations.
We present the first spectroscopic investigation concerning the role of four ions (Ru, Rh, Os, Re) of the platinum group on the photochromic behavior of the photorefractive crystal Bi12SiO20. Absorption and magnetic circular dichroism (MCD) spectra were taken in the thermally bleached state and after various illuminations so as to determine the coloration thresholds. Ruthenium and Osmium are demonstrated to enter the crystal, whereas the answer is not yet certain in the case of rhodium and rhenium. We believe that the doping occurs at the pseudo-octahedral Bi site.
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