Optical ultrasound sensing for biomedical imaging

Abstract

Cutting-edge biomedical ultrasound imaging demands advanced ultrasound sensing capabilities such as broad bandwidth, high sensitivity, and parallel sensing. A variety of optical ultrasound sensing modalities have demonstrated exceptional performances with advancing sensing capabilities. Compared with piezoelectric ultrasound transducers, optical ultrasound sensors exhibit more challenges in array integration. The broadband sensing capability originates from the absence of mechanical resonance in optical sensors, indicating a relatively uniform response across a wide frequency range. The sensitivity of sensors with optical resonance generally leads to higher sensitivity than the sensors without optical resonance due to enhanced parameters during the multi-beam interference in resonance. Nevertheless, array integration of ultrasound sensors without optical resonance is free of some constraints for those with resonance. This review paper introduces the principal parameters of biomedical ultrasound sensing, and then make an elaborate review of the state-of-the-art optical ultrasound sensing modalities, which hold significant potential for advanced biomedical ultrasound imaging.