Open AccessEnhancement of photoacoustic tomography of acoustically inhomogeneous tissue by utilizing a memory effect
Author(s) -
Jian Yin,
Junjun He,
Chao Tao,
Xiaojun Liu
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
optics express
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.394
H-Index - 271
ISSN - 1094-4087
DOI - 10.1364/oe.388902
Subject(s) - photoacoustic imaging in biomedicine , iterative reconstruction , photoacoustic tomography , tomography , waveform , optics , computer science , photoacoustic spectroscopy , signal (programming language) , transducer , image restoration , similarity (geometry) , image (mathematics) , acoustics , photoacoustic effect , materials science , image processing , computer vision , physics , telecommunications , radar , programming language
One of the major challenges for photoacoustic tomography is the variance of the speed of sound (SOS) in realistic tissue, which could lead to defocusing in image reconstruction and degrade the reconstructed image. In this study, we propose a method to optimize the SOS used for image reconstruction based on a memory effect of photoacoustic signal. We reveal that the photoacoustic signals received by two adjacent transducers have a high degree of similarity in waveform, while a time delay exists between them. The time delay is related to the SOS. Based on this physical phenomenon, an iterative operation is implemented to estimate the SOS used for image reconstruction. Both simulations and experiments confirm that the method significantly enhances the reconstructed image in inhomogeneous tissue. This study may have potential value in improving the performance of photoacoustic tomography in biomedical applications.