Morphological-adaptive photoacoustic tomography with flexible transducer and flexible orientation light.

Abstract

Although conventional photoacoustic tomography (PAT) provides high optical contrast and high ultrasound resolution in depth, its fixed-energy-distribution laser and unchangeable-shaped detector hinder its implementations on clinical routine breast screening. In this Letter, for the first time, to the best of our knowledge, we present a fully flexible photoacoustic coupling system (FPACS) that integrates optical fiber bundles and a flexible ultrasonic transducer for morphological-adaptive breast detection. The experimental results show that the system has better resolution and higher energy utilization than traditional PAT systems, even at the edge of the imaging region. Moreover, the system can achieve morphological adaption, suggesting that the FPACS provides the potential for clinical routine breast screening.