Optics & Photonics

Special issue on optoacoustic imaging and sensing

Optoacoustic or photoacoustic imaging involves the generation of ultrasound waves by transient light absorption. It is attractive from a biological perspective as it is insensitive to photon scattering within biological tissue and has non-invasive medical imaging capabilities. The power of the technique is that it draws upon the advantages of high optical absorption contrast and deep ultrasonic penetration to enable high-resolution optical visualization deep within tissue, giving it a potential edge over other high-resolution optical imaging modalities. It is also very versatile as a method and is relatively low cost to implement. Thus, it has emerged as an important tool in biological and clinical applications.

The aim of this special issue is to provide an up-to-date picture of recent improvements in the capabilities of optoacoustic systems, such as through advances in technology, detection strategies and inversion techniques. It will also cover applications of the method across microscopy, tomography and sensing.

• Biomedical imaging
• Photoacoustic computed tomography
• General equation
• Universal reconstruction algorithm
• Simple system
• Biomedical applications
• Brain lesion detection
• Hemodynamics monitoring
• Breast cancer diagnosis
• Photoacoustic microscopy