All-optical fiber ultrasound imaging system based on the photoacoustic principle

Abstract

This paper presents the design, fabrication, and characterization of a novel all-optical fiber ultrasound imaging system based on the photoacoustic (PA) ultrasound generation principle and Fabry-Perot interferometer principle for biomedical imaging applications. This system consists of a fiber optic ultrasound generator and a Fabry–Perot (FP) fiber sensor receiver. A carbon black polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) material was utilized as the photoacoustic material for the fiber optic ultrasound generator. The black PDMS material was coated on the tip of a 1000 μm core size multimode fiber (MMF) to generate the ultrasound signal. Two layers of gold, PDMS and a single mode fiber (SMF) were used to build the FP fiber sensor receiver. The system verification test proves the ultrasound sensing capability. The biomedical imaging test validates the ultrasound imaging capability. There are many advantages of this all-optical fiber ultrasound imaging system, such as small size, light weight, ease of use, and immunity to electromagnetic interference. This research has revealed valuable knowledge for the further study of biomedical imaging in a limited space, e.g., catheter based intravascular imaging, tissue characterization, tissue identification and related biomedical applications.