FWHM Research Articles

Optical resonant cavities carving pathways in tunable wavelength sensitive visible-NIR organic photodetectors

Enhancing the photodetection capabilities of organic photodetectors (OPDs) is crucial for advancing applications in medical monitoring, optical communications, image sensing, and robotics, where a strong, focused peak response at a specific designed wavelength is essential for improving sensitivity, wavelength selectivity, and resolution in imaging systems. By controlled integration of ZnO layers within PBDBT:BTP-4F-based OPDs to form a Fabry-Pérot optical cavity, we developed a cost-effective approach to fabricating highly sensitive OPDs by utilizing PBDBT:BTP-4F organic bulk heterojunctions, and extended its detection wavelengths into the near-infrared (NIR) range. Our design integrates a single silver (Ag) layer that significantly enhances peak detection at a wavelength of 830 ​nm, resulting in a remarkably narrow full-width at half maximum (FWHM) wavelength of 30 ​nm and yielding a photoresponse ten times greater than that of non-resonant devices. Furthermore, by varying the thickness of the ZnO layer from 77 ​nm to 620 ​nm, we achieve high spectral tunability, allowing fine adjustments of the resonant peak across a spectrum ranging from ultraviolet (UV) and visible to NIR wavelengths. This sensitive photodetector is also well-suited for applications in photoplethysmography (PPG), effectively detecting pulse signals in the NIR spectrum which has significant potential in medical diagnostics. This work advances the integration of cost-effective, wavelength-selective spectroscopic visible-NIR OPDs, paving the way for the next generation of sensitive photodetectors.

Exciton Dissociation and Recombination Afford Narrowband Organic Afterglow Through Efficient FRET.

Organic afterglow with long-persistent luminescence (LPL) after photoexcitation is highly attractive, but the realization of narrowband afterglow with small full-width at half-maximum (FWHM) is a huge challenge since it is intrinsically contradictory to the triplet- and solid-state emission nature of organic afterglow. Here, narrow-band, long-lived, and full-color organic LPL is realized by isolating multi-resonant thermally activated delayed fluorescent (MR-TADF) fluorophores in a glassy steroid-type host through a facile melt-cooling treatment. Such prepared host becomes capable of exciton dissociation and recombination (EDR) upon photoirradiation for both long-lived fluorescence and phosphorescence; and, the efficient Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) from the host to various MR-TADF emitters leads to high-performance LPL, exhibiting small FWHM of 33nm, long persistent time over 10s, and facile color-tuning in a wide range from deep-blue to orange (414-600nm). Moreover, with the extraordinary narrowband LPL and easy processability of the material, centimeter-scale flexible optical waveguide fibers and integrated FWHM/color/lifetime-resolved multilevel encryption/decryption devices have been designed and fabricated. This novel EDR and singlet/triplet-to-singlet FRET strategy to achieve excellent LPL performances illustrates a promising way for constructing flexible organic afterglow with easy preparation methods, shedding valuable scientific insights into the design of narrow-band emission in organic afterglow.

Epilayer thickness effect on the electrical and breakdown characteristics of vertical β-Ga2O3 Schottky barrier diode

The current–voltage and breakdown characteristics of Au/Ni/β-Ga2O3 Schottky barrier diodes were investigated as a function of β-Ga2O3 epilayer thickness in the range of 6–19 μm. The X-ray rocking curves indicated that the full-width half-maximum is reduced with increasing epilayer thickness, implying an improvement in the crystallinity of β-Ga2O3 epilayer. The barrier heights of the field-plated β-Ga2O3 Schottky barrier diode with epitaxial layer thickness of 6, 12, and 19 μm were obtained as 1.01, 1.03, and 1.04 eV, with the ideality factor values being 1.21, 1.19, and 1.46, respectively. The higher ideality factors could be associated with the existence of inhomogeneity at the metal–semiconductor interface. The series resistance of the Schottky diode obtained increased with increasing epilayer thickness. The Schottky diode fabricated on 19 μm thick epitaxial layer exhibited a higher breakdown voltage of 490 V. The increase in epilayer thickness led to the widening of depletion region, resulting in lower electric field over a larger distance. This could be a main cause of the enhancement of the breakdown voltage characteristics of β-Ga2O3 Schottky barrier diode.

Efficient and spectrally stable pure blue light‐emitting diodes enabled by phosphonate passivated CsPbBr3 nanoplatelets with conjugated polyelectrolyte‐based energy transfer layer

AbstractLead halide perovskites exhibit a very wide color gamut due to their extremely narrow emission spectra, typically characterized by a full‐width at half‐maximum (FWHM) of less than 20 nm. Significant advancements have been made in developing highly efficient and stable green, red, and near‐infrared perovskite light‐emitting diodes (PeLEDs). However, achieving efficient and stable pure blue‐emitting PeLEDs remains a significant challenge. In this work, we successfully synthesized monoanionic octyl‐phosphonate capped CsPbBr3 nanoplatelets (OPA‐NPLs) using a combination of octyl‐phosphonic acid and oleylamine at room temperature, diverging from common approaches that necessitate complex high‐temperature methods, such as hot injection, to accommodate short‐chain ligands. The OPA‐NPLs exhibit pure blue photoluminescence at 462 nm with a FWHM of 14 nm. Compared with CsPbBr3 nanoplatelets synthesized using oleic acid, OPA‐NPLs demonstrate significantly improved thermal stability and higher photoluminescence quantum yield (PLQY) of 90%. Additionally, we introduced Poly[(9,9‐bis(3′‐((N,N‐dimethyl)‐N‐ethylammonium)‐propyl)‐2,7‐fluorene)‐alt‐2,7‐(9,9‐dioctylfluorene)]dibromide (PFN‐Br), a conjugated polyelectrolyte material, as a hole transport layer. This facilitated energy transfer between PFN‐Br and the CsPbBr3 nanoplatelets. The resulting device demonstrated an electroluminescence peak at 462 nm, an extremely narrow FWHM of 14 nm, and a maximum external quantum efficiency (EQE) of 4%. Notably, the device maintained pure blue emission without spectral peak shift even during degradation caused by excess joule heating.image

Electron–photon–phonon interactions in Dirac semimetals: Magneto-optical absorption and mobility analysis

We study the magneto-optical properties of Dirac semimetal (DSM) slabs with particular emphasis on Cd3As2 through electron–photon–phonon interactions, focusing on the magneto-optical absorption coefficient (MOAC) and full-width at half maximum (FWHM). Studying the Landau level (LL) energy of DSMs in the (xy) plane and the z-direction revealed a unique deviation from the square root dependence on the magnetic field, distinguishing DSMs from other semiconductors. At high magnetic fields, the electron–hole symmetry in the LL spectrum is broken, indicating a topological phase in DSMs. For undoped DSMs, MOAC is driven by interband transitions, with peaks from one-photon absorption being smaller and positioned to the left of two-photon ones. Increasing the magnetic field increases peak values. FWHM for one- and two-photon processes increases with the magnetic field and follows a T dependence on temperature. In doped DSMs, both intraband and interband transitions occur, with new interband peaks emerging at higher temperatures near the Fermi energy. Increased electron density shifts the peak position slightly toward higher energy. Peaks from optical phonon emission are consistently higher and located to the right of those from optical phonon absorption, indicating a stronger emission process. The FWHM data allow for the estimation of electron mobilities, and using a reasonable broadening parameter, our predicted mobility values agree with experimental results.

Measurement of energy resolution with the NEXT-White silicon photomultipliers

The NEXT-White detector, a high-pressure gaseous xenon time projection chamber, demonstrated the excellence of this technology for future neutrinoless double beta decay searches using photomultiplier tubes (PMTs) to measure energy and silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) to extract topology information. This analysis uses 83mKr data from the NEXT-White detector to measure and understand the energy resolution that can be obtained with the SiPMs, rather than with PMTs. The energy resolution obtained of (10.9 ± 0.6)%, full-width half-maximum, is slightly larger than predicted based on the photon statistics resulting from very low light detection coverage of the SiPM plane in the NEXT-White detector. The difference in the predicted and measured resolution is attributed to poor corrections, which are expected to be improved with larger statistics. Furthermore, the noise of the SiPMs is shown to not be a dominant factor in the energy resolution and may be negligible when noise subtraction is applied appropriately, for high-energy events or larger SiPM coverage detectors. These results, which are extrapolated to estimate the response of large coverage SiPM planes, are promising for the development of future, SiPM-only, readout planes that can offer imaging and achieve similar energy resolution to that previously demonstrated with PMTs.

Four‐Membered Ring‐Embedded Cycloarene Enabling Anti‐Aromaticity and Ultra‐Narrowband Emission

AbstractThe synthesis of fully fused π‐conjugated cycloarenes embedded with nonbenzenoid aromatics is challenging. In this work, the first example of four‐membered ring‐embedded cycloarene (MF2) was designed and synthesized in single‐crystal form by macrocyclization and ring fusion strategies. For comparison, single bond‐linked chiral macrocycle MS2 without two fused four‐membered rings and its linear‐shaped polycyclic benzenoid monomer L1 were also synthesized. The pronounced anti‐aromaticity of four‐membered rings significantly adjusts the electronic structures and photophysical properties of cycloarene, resulting in an enhancement of the photoluminescence quantum yield (PLQY) from 10.66 % and 10.74 % for L1 and MS2, respectively, to 54.05 % for MF2, which is the highest PLQY among the reported cycloarenes. Notably, owing to the embedded anti‐aromatic four‐membered rings that reduce structural displacements, MF2 exhibits an ultra‐narrowband emission with a single‐digit full‐width at half‐maximum (FWHM) of only 7 nm (0.038 eV), which sets a new record among all reported organic narrowband luminescent molecules, and represents the first example of ultra‐narrowband emission in conventional polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) devoid of heteroatoms.

Performance evaluation of a 4D similarity filter for dynamic CT angiography imaging of the liver.

Dynamic computed tomography (CT) angiography of the abdomen provides perfusion information and characteristics of the tissues present in the abdomen. This information could potentially help characterize liver metastases. However, radiation dose has to be relatively low for the patient, causing the images to have very high noise content. Denoising methods are needed to increase image quality. The purpose of this study was to investigate the performance, limitations, and behavior of a new 4D filtering method, called the 4D Similarity Filter (4DSF), to reduce image noise in temporal CT data. The 4DSF averages voxels with similar time-intensity curves (TICs). Each phase is filtered individually using the information of all phases except for the one being filtered. This approach minimizes the bias toward the noise initially present in this phase. Since the 4DSF does not base similarity on spatial proximity, loss of spatial resolution is avoided. The 4DSF was evaluated on a 12-phase liver dynamic CT angiography acquisition of 52 digital anthropomorphic phantoms, each containing one hypervascular 1cm lesion with a small necrotic core. The metrics used for evaluation were noise reduction, lesion contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR), CT number accuracy using peak-time and peak-intensity of the TICs, and resolution loss. The results were compared to those obtained by the time-intensity profile similarity (TIPS) filter, which uses the whole TIC for determining similarity, and the combination 4DSF followed by TIPS filter (4DSF + TIPS). The 4DSF alone resulted in a median noise reduction by a factor of 6.8, which is lower than that obtained by the TIPS filter at 8.1, and 4DSF + TIPS at 12.2. The 4DSF increased the median CNR from 0. 44 to 1.85, which is less than the TIPS filter at 2.59 and 4DSF + TIPS at 3.12. However, the peak-intensity accuracy in the TICs was superior for the 4DSF, with a median intensity decrease of -34 HU compared to -88 and -50 HU for the hepatic artery when using the TIPS filter and 4DSF + TIPS, respectively. The median peak-time accuracy was inferior for the 4DSF filter and 4DSF + TIPS, with a time shift of -1 phases for the portal vein TIC compared to no shift in time when using the TIPS. The analysis of the full-width-at-half-maximum (FWHM) of a small artery showed significantly less spatial resolution loss for the 4DSF at 3.2 pixels, compared to the TIPS filter at 4.3 pixels, and 3.4 pixels for the 4DSF + TIPS. The 4DSF can reduce noise with almost no resolution loss, making the filter very suitable for denoising 4D CT data for detection tasks, even in very low dose, i.e., very high noise level, situations. In combination with the TIPS filter, the noise reduction can be increased even further.

Dual‐Core Engineering for Efficient Deep‐Blue Multiple Resonance Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescent Materials

AbstractDeveloping narrowband blue multiple resonance (MR) organic emitters with Commission Internationale de L'Eclairage (CIE) y coordinates <0.1 is essential for advanced display technologies. This study proposes a deep‐blue thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) emitter, named 2BNO, which integrates two independent MR cores. Unlike many TADF materials with single‐bonded dual emitting cores, 2BNO utilizes a steric hindrance‐assisted fluorene bridge to achieve an orthorhombic molecular structure. The dual‐core MR‐TADF emitter shows enhanced light absorption and a high photoluminescence quantum yield. Notably, the emission of 2BNO is not significantly redshifted compared to single‐core compounds and maintains a narrow full width at half‐maximum (FWHM) of 24 nm with CIE coordinates of (0.147, 0.041) in 2Me‐THF solution, nearing the BT.2020 blue standard. Organic light‐emitting diodes (OLEDs) incorporating 2BNO as the emitter exhibit deep‐blue emission at 460 nm with a narrow FWHM of 29 nm and CIE coordinates of (0.14, 0.09). The dual emitting core design significantly improves device efficiency, achieving a high external quantum efficiency (EQE) of 19.8%. The dual‐core molecular design strategy in this work is demonstrated to be effective in promoting the efficiency of the TADF emitters while preserving deep‐blue color purity.

Modulating Charge‐Transfer Excited States of Multiple Resonance Emitters via Intramolecular Covalent Bond Locking

AbstractAdvanced multiple resonance thermally activated delayed fluorescence (MR‐TADF) emitters with high efficiency and color purity have emerged as a research focus in the development of ultra‐high‐definition displays. Herein, we disclose an approach to modulate the charge‐transfer excited states of MR emitters via intramolecular covalent bond locking. This strategy can promote the evolution of strong intramolecular charge‐transfer (ICT) states into weak ICT states, ultimately narrowing the full‐width at half‐maximum (FWHM) of emitters. To modulate the ICT intensity, two octagonal rings are introduced to yield molecule m‐DCzDAz‐BNCz. Compounds m‐CzDAz‐BNCz and m‐DCzDAz‐BNCz exhibit bright light‐green and green fluorescence in toluene, with emission maxima of 504 and 513 nm, and FWHMs of 28 and 34 nm, respectively. Sensitized organic light‐emitting diodes (OLEDs) employing emitters m‐CzDAz‐BNCz and m‐DCzDAz‐BNCz exhibit green emission with peaks of 508 and 520 nm, Commission Internationale de L'Eclairage (CIE) coordinates of (0.12, 0.65) and (0.19, 0.69), and maximum external quantum efficiencies (EQEs) of 30.2 % and 32.6 %, respectively.

Multiple Enol-Keto Isomerization and Excited-State Unidirectional Intramolecular Proton Transfer Generate Intense, Narrowband Red OLEDs.

A novel series of excited-state intramolecular proton transfer (ESIPT) emitters, namely, DPNA, DPNA-F, and DPNA-tBu, endowed with dual intramolecular hydrogen bonds, were designed and synthesized. In the condensed phase, DPNAs exhibit unmatched absorption and emission spectral features, where the minor 0-0 absorption peak becomes a major one in the emission. Detailed spectroscopic and dynamic approaches conclude fast ground-state equilibrium among enol-enol (EE), enol-keto (EK), and keto-keto (KK) isomers. The equilibrium ratio can be fine-tuned by varying the substitutions in DPNAs. Independent of isomers and excitation wavelength, ultrafast ESIPT takes place for all DPNAs, giving solely KK tautomer emission maximized at >650 nm. The spectral temporal evolution of ESIPT was resolved by a state-of-the-art technique, namely, the transient grating photoluminescence (TGPL), where the rate of EK* → KK* is measured to be (157 fs)-1 for DPNA-tBu, while a stepwise process is resolved for EE* → EK* → KK*, with a rate of EE* → EK* of (72 fs)-1. For all DPNAs, the KK tautomer emission shows a narrowband emission with high photoluminescence quantum yields (PLQY, ∼62% for DPNA in toluene) in the red, offering advantages to fabricate deep-red organic light-emitting diodes (OLED). The resulting OLEDs give high external quantum efficiency with a spectral full width at half-maximum (FWHM) as narrow as ∼40 nm centered at 666-670 nm for DPNAs, fully satisfying the BT. 2020 standard. The unique ESIPT properties and highly intense tautomer emission with a small fwhm thus establish a benchmark for reaching red narrowband organic electroluminescence.

Improvement of luminescence properties in Zn2.1Mg0.9Ta2O8:Cr3+ by the cation substitution and its application in biological nondestructive testing and night vision lighting.

Recently, it is of great significance to explore near-infrared (NIR) phosphor with more application prospects. In this work, a series of Zn2.1 Mg(0.9 - y)GaySnyTa(2 - y)O8:0.003Cr3+ NIR broadband phosphors with high quantum yields and high thermal stability are discovered by uniquely replacing [Mg2+-Ta5+] in Zn2.1Mg0.9Ta2O8 with [Ga3+-Sn4+]. Under 460 nm excitation, Zn2.1Mg0.85Ga0.05Sn0.05Ta1.95O8: 0.003Cr3+ depicts the 600-1100 nm broadband emission with a full-width at half maximum (FWHM) of 210 nm, and the quantum yields can reach 61.2%. Finally, the phosphor was mixed with epoxy resin and encapsulated in a 460 nm blue light emitting diode (LED) chip to convert the NIR LED by phosphor (NIR pc-LED), which was applied in the field of biological nondestructive testing and night vision lighting.

Parallel Analogy Method for Measuring FRD of the FASOT-IFU

A fiber integral field unit (IFU) was chosen for the Fiber Array Solar Optical Telescope (FASOT) to obtain high-spectral-resolution polarization solar spectral images. This IFU features a dual-array-end design, complemented by a dozen slit ends. Each consists of 2 sub-slits corresponding to the dual array ends. In order to accurately and quickly measure the focal ratio degradation of 8064 fibers in FASOT-IFU, a parallel analogy method (PAM) for FASOT-IFU was proposed. This method primarily relies on characterizing the focal ratio based on the full-width at half-maximum (FWHM) of the fiber’s output spot, and the linear relationship between the output focal ratio of the spot and the FWHM. By precisely calculating the focal ratio of the positioning fiber in the FASOT-IFU and treating it as a reference, the output focal ratio of the working fiber can be obtained by comparing the FWHM of the working fiber spot and the positioning fiber spot at the same emission distance. The average value of the output focal ratio by PAM corresponding to the 4032 fibers from Array A of the IFU is 6.0 and the standard deviation is 0.6. The values corresponding to the Array B are 6.2 and 0.40, respectively. The mean value exceeds the contractually specified F/5.5, and the proportion of optical fibers with a focal ratio greater than 5.5 accounts for 88% of the total number of optical fibers, meeting the design requirements of the FASOT system.

Complex Pseudo 3D Auto-Correlation Network for High-Quality Single-Angle Plane Wave Imaging

Abstract Deep learning has shown potential as an effective beamformer for improving the image quality of plane wave imaging (PWI). But most existing deep learning methods cannot directly handle the complex in-phase and quadrature (IQ) data. And noise in ultrasound signals would significantly damage the performance of regular convolution networks. To address these challenges, we proposed the Complex Pseudo 3D Auto-Correlation Network (CP3AN) which combined complex convolution and pseudo 3D auto-correlation blocks (P3AB) to directly map delayed IQ data from 0° plane wave into PWI pixels. The complex convolution could fully utilize the envelope and phase information of IQ data, while the P3AB used 1D convolution to extract noise in channel and space dimensions, allowing the network to prioritize valid signals with extremely low computational cost. We evaluated the performance of CP3AN through numerical simulations, phantom experiments, and in-vivo experiments, which showed comparable metrics with minimum variance (MV), including contrast (CR), contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR), generalized contrast-to-noise ratio (GCNR), lateral, and axial full-width half maximum (FWHM) at -9.60 dB, 1.12, 0.65, 319 um, and 344 um, respectively. The CP3AN achieved a low computational cost of 0.11 M floating-point operations (FLOPs), significantly lower than the MV or other compared deep learning-based methods. Our proposed method provided a promising solution for improving single-angle PWI imaging, particularly in situations where high frame rates are necessary.

The growth model of lead-free CsEuBr3 nanocrystals

Lead-based perovskite nanocrystals are widely used in luminescence due to their exceptional properties. However, the toxicity of lead impedes their prospective commercial applications. Recently emerged lead-free CsEuCl3 nanocrystals exhibit outstanding monochromaticity, but have relatively low photoluminescence quantum yield (PLQY). In this study, we successfully synthesized CsEuBr3 nanocrystals characterized by high PLQY and monochromaticity. The photoluminescence (PL) emission peak is located at 421 nm, with a full-width at half maximum (FWHM) of approximately 21 nm, and a PLQY of 70 %. We have verified that the synthesized material is CsEuBr3 nanocrystals based on its characteristics in terms of structure and spectrum. Moreover, a dopant-driven growth model for CsEuBr3 is proposed, which highlights the critical role of Eu2+-2OAm and oleic acid (OA) quantity in synthesis. Elucidating the growth mechanism of CsEuBr3 nanocrystals holds significant importance for advancing research in novel lead-free perovskite materials.

MC/sub-channel coupling for steady state and transient simulation of Xi’an Pulsed Reactor

The Monte Carlo (MC) code RMC and sub-channel code CTF are coupled for Xi’an Pulsed Reactor (XAPR) pulse and depletion simulation. A python script is developed to handle data exchange through files. $3.45 pulse and $2 pulse are simulated with the pulsed state core. The pulse peak power and the Full Width at Half-Maximum (FWHM) results are compared with experiments as a validation and good agreement is achieved. Detailed 3-D power and temperature distributions are also obtained. Results show that the core power peak is close to the pulse rod where the reactivity is introduced. The radial power peak of each rod is at the boundary because of the self-shielding effect. The rod temperature distribution follows the same trend with the power, and the coolant temperature is not changed during the pulse period of about 0.12 s, which suggests that the heat transfer plays a negligible role in such a short time. For the steady state core, depletion simulation is carried out for the lifetime of the first fuel cycle of 120 Effective Full Power Days (EFPD). Validation is done by calculating the temperature distribution and the differential worth of the regulating rod at 0 EFPD, which both agree well with experiments. Results show that the power distribution is almost unchanged over time, only slightly more flat, indicating the material is not greatly depleted. The temperature distribution of the core generally agrees with the power distribution, except the radial temperature peak of each rod is at the center because heat is conducted outwards at steady state. Detailed coolant temperature distribution is obtained thanks to the utilization of CTF. Temperatures at the assembly boundary and near the central water chamber is noticeably lower than the other part, which is not shown in the parallel multi-channel models.

Optimization of electrostatic seeding technique for wafer-scale diamond fabrication on β-Ga2O3

Integrating diamonds with β-Ga2O3 is a promising solution for addressing the problem of poor thermal conductivity and limited p-type dopability of β-Ga2O3. However, growing diamonds on β-Ga2O3 is challenging, especially without any interfacial layer, and achieving large-scale uniform diamond films is also tricky. This paper explores the vital role of an electrostatic seeding technique involving the use of Polydiallyldimethylammonium chloride (PDDAC) polymer with a positive zeta potential and diamond nano slurries with a negative zeta potential to facilitate the integration of diamond with β-Ga2O3. We conduct a detailed analysis of each step of this seeding technique, adjusting the spinning speed of the polymer coating, spinning period, baking period, and ultrasonication period to understand the underlying mechanisms preventing large-scale diamond growth and to identify strategies for achieving wafer-scale diamond fabrication on single crystal β-Ga2O3 film. This process facilitates the attainment of a uniform dispersion of diamond nanoparticles on β-Ga2O3 at a seeding density of ∼1.82 × 1011 cm−2. The optimized seeding technique has enabled the successful growth of wafer-scale diamond films on β-Ga2O3, as confirmed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Additionally, the high quality of the diamond film is affirmed by a quality factor of 96.75 % and a narrow full-width half maximum of 10.28 cm−1 in the T2g peak of the Raman spectra. The X-ray diffraction pattern reinforces the excellent quality of polycrystalline diamond films with minimum stress. In summary, this research provides valuable insights into the polymer-assisted electrostatic seeding technique, paving the way for the uniform growth of wafer-scale diamond films on β-Ga2O3, which is critical for realizing β-Ga2O3-based heterostructure devices.

Transcranial ultrafast ultrasound Doppler imaging: A phantom study

Ultrafast ultrasound Doppler imaging facilitates the assessment of cerebral hemodynamics with high spatio-temporal resolution. However, the significant acoustic impedance mismatch between the skull and soft tissue results in phase aberrations, which can compromise the quality of transcranial imaging and introduce biases in velocity and direction quantification of blood flow. This paper proposed an aberration correction method that combines deep learning-based skull sound speed modelling with ray theory to realize transcranial plane-wave imaging and ultrafast Doppler imaging. The method was validated through phantom experiments using a linear array with a center frequency of 6.25 MHz, 128 elements, and a pitch of 0.3 mm. The results demonstrated an improvement in the imaging quality of intracranial targets when using the proposed method. After aberration correction, the average locating deviation decreased from 1.40 mm to 0.27 mm in the axial direction, from 0.50 mm to 0.20 mm in the lateral direction, and the average full-width-at-half-maximum (FWHM) decreased from 1.37 mm to 0.97 mm for point scatterers. For circular inclusions, the average contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) improved from 8.1 dB to 11.0 dB, and the average eccentricity decreased from 0.36 to 0.26. Furthermore, the proposed method was applied to transcranial ultrafast Doppler flow imaging. The results showed a significant improvement in accuracy and quality for blood Doppler flow imaging. The results in the absence of the skull were considered as the reference, and the average normalized root-mean-square errors of the axial velocity component on the five selected axial profiles were reduced from 17.67% to 8.02% after the correction.

Arterial input function estimation compensating for inflow and partial voluming in dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI.

Both inflow and the partial volume effect (PVE) are sources of error when measuring the arterial input function (AIF) in dynamic contrast-enhanced (DCE) MRI. This is relevant, as errors in the AIF can propagate into pharmacokinetic parameter estimations from the DCE data. A method was introduced for flow correction by estimating and compensating the number of the perceived pulse of spins during inflow. We hypothesized that the PVE has an impact on concentration-time curves similar to inflow. Therefore, we aimed to study the efficiency of this method to compensate for both effects simultaneously. We first simulated an AIF with different levels of inflow and PVE contamination. The peak, full width at half-maximum (FWHM), and area under curve (AUC) of the reconstructed AIFs were compared with the true (simulated) AIF. In clinical data, the PVE was included in AIFs artificially by averaging the signal in voxels surrounding a manually selected point in an artery. Subsequently, the artificial partial volume AIFs were corrected and compared with the AIF from the selected point. Additionally, corrected AIFs from the internal carotid artery (ICA), the middle cerebral artery (MCA), and the venous output function (VOF) estimated from the superior sagittal sinus (SSS) were compared. As such, we aimed to investigate the effectiveness of the correction method with different levels of inflow and PVE in clinical data. The simulation data demonstrated that the corrected AIFs had only marginal bias in peak value, FWHM, and AUC. Also, the algorithm yielded highly correlated reconstructed curves over increasingly larger neighbourhoods surrounding selected arterial points in clinical data. Furthermore, AIFs measured from the ICA and MCA produced similar peak height and FWHM, whereas a significantly larger peak and lower FWHM was found compared with the VOF. Our findings indicate that the proposed method has high potential to compensate for PVE and inflow simultaneously. The corrected AIFs could thereby provide a stable input source for DCE analysis.

Effect of single-photon emission computed tomography acquisition method and sampling angles on image quality and quantitative accuracy in xSPECT-reconstructed images.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of the single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) acquisition method and sampling angles on the qualitative and quantitative interpretations of xSPECT-reconstructed images. The spatial resolution was evaluated using a JSP phantom, and the uniformity and quantitative accuracy were verified with a NEMA IEC Body Phantom using an SIEMENS Symbia Intevo SPECT/computed tomography system. SPECT was performed using three acquisition methods (step-and-shoot, continuous, and acquire during the step), and the sampling angles were set to 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6°. The xSPECT-reconstruction technology which is used with ordered subset-conjugated gradient minimization was used for image reconstruction. Full width of half maximum, an evaluation index of spatial resolution, varied up to 2.73 mm with different sampling angles and up to 2.06 mm with different acquisition methods. Uniformity, as assessed by the coefficient of variation, improved with increasing sampling angles. The accuracy of the quantification of the hot sphere showed an error rate of approximately 10% depending on the sampling angle, and an error rate of approximately 5% depending on the different acquisition methods. In xSPECT-reconstructed images, the difference in sampling angle has a greater impact on image quality and quantitativity than the difference in the acquisition method. For tests in which uniformity is important, a larger sampling angle is recommended.