<title>Features of acousto-optic imaging of scattering media with use of focused ultrasonic beam</title>

Abstract

The acoustooptic images of volume and plane light-absorbing objects imbedded in a rectangular cuvette with a scattering liquid were obtained under the intermediate scattering conditions when μLC less than 35 where μ is an extinction coefficient and LC is the length of the cuvette along the laser beam axis. Photodetector collected the scattered and ballistic components of laser radiation, transmitted through the scattering medium traversed by focused ultrasonic beam. The alternating current at ultrasonic frequency was used as an imaging parameter. The characteristics of the alternating current were experimentally studied to optimize a registration of the component corresponding to the sound-modulated scattered light. The quality of the acoustooptic imaging was analyzed in dependence on the registration conditions, on the value of the scattering parameter and on the form and size of objects imbedded into the scattering liquid. It was obtained that under the used conditions the location of imbedded ultrasound-transparent objects in direction perpendicular to the laser axis was quite exact with the satisfactory contrast and sharpness as opposed to that along the direction of laser beam. An image contrast and sharpness in lateral flat of the volume objects were higher than that of plane figure.