Open AccessPhotoacoustic imaging of fluorophores using pump-probe excitation
Author(s) -
Julia Märk,
FranzJosef Schmitt,
Christoph Theiss,
Hakan Dortay,
Thomas Friedrich
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
biomedical optics express
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.362
H-Index - 86
ISSN - 2156-7085
DOI - 10.1364/boe.6.002522
Subject(s) - fluorophore , cuvette , rhodamine 6g , fluorescence , imaging phantom , optics , materials science , tomographic reconstruction , signal (programming language) , molecular imaging , rhodamine , fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy , tomography , physics , in vivo , microbiology and biotechnology , computer science , biology , programming language
A pump-probe technique for the detection of fluorophores in tomographic PA images is introduced. It is based on inducing stimulated emission in fluorescent molecules, which in turn modulates the amount of thermalized energy, and hence the PA signal amplitude. A theoretical model of the PA signal generation in fluorophores is presented and experimentally validated on cuvette measurements made in solutions of Rhodamine 6G, a fluorophore of known optical and molecular properties. The application of this technique to deep tissue tomographic PA imaging is demonstrated by determining the spatial distribution of a near-infrared fluorophore in a tissue phantom.