arXiv subjects

Lihong V. Wang

Publications and source records attributed to Lihong V. Wang.

39 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2014

Nonlinear photoacoustic wavefront shaping (PAWS) for single speckle-grain optical focusing in scattering media

Non-invasively focusing light into strongly scattering media, such as biological tissue, is highly desirable but challenging. Recently, wavefront shaping technologies guided by ultrasonic encoding or photoacoustic sensing have been developed to address this limitation. So far, these methods provide only acoustic diffraction-limited optical focusing. Here, we introduce nonlinear photoacoustic wavefront shaping (PAWS), which achieves optical diffraction-limited (i.e. single-speckle-grain) focusing in scattering media. We develop an efficient dual-pulse excitation approach to generate strong nonlinear photoacoustic (PA) signals based on the Grueneisen memory effect. These nonlinear PA signals are used as feedback to guide iterative wavefront optimization. By maximizing the amplitude of the nonlinear PA signal, light is effectively focused to a single optical speckle grain. Experimental results demonstrate a clear optical focus on the scale of 5-7 micrometers, which is ~10 times smaller than the acoustic focus in linear dimension, with an enhancement factor of ~6000 in peak fluence. This technology has the potential to provide highly confined strong optical focus deep in tissue for microsurgery of Parkinson's disease and epilepsy or single-neuron imaging and optogenetic activation.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2013

Digital ultrasonically encoded (DUE) optical focusing into random media

Focusing light into opaque random or scattering media such as biological tissue is a much sought-after goal for biomedical applications such as photodynamic therapy, optical manipulation, and photostimulation. However, focusing with conventional lenses is restricted to one transport mean free path in scattering media, limiting both optical penetration depth and resolution. Focusing deeper is possible by using optical phase conjugation or wavefront shaping to compensate for the scattering. For practical applications, wavefront shaping offers the advantage of a robust optical system that is less sensitive to optical misalignment. Here, the phase of the incident light is spatially tailored using a phase-shifting array to pre-compensate for scattering. The challenge, then, is to determine the phase pattern which allows light to be optimally delivered to the target region. Optimization algorithms are typically employed for this purpose, with visible particles used as targets to generate feedback. However, using these particles is invasive, and light delivery is limited to fixed points. Here, we demonstrate a method for non-invasive and dynamic focusing, by using ultrasound encoding as a virtual guide star for feedback to an optimization algorithm. The light intensity at the acoustic focus was increased by an order of magnitude. This technique has broad biomedical applications, such as in optogenetics or photoactivation of drugs.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2013

Full-Wave Iterative Image Reconstruction in Photoacoustic Tomography with Acoustically Inhomogeneous Media

Existing approaches to image reconstruction in photoacoustic computed tomography (PACT) with acoustically heterogeneous media are limited to weakly varying media, are computationally burdensome, and/or cannot effectively mitigate the effects of measurement data incompleteness and noise. In this work, we develop and investigate a discrete imaging model for PACT that is based on the exact photoacoustic (PA) wave equation and facilitates the circumvention of these limitations. A key contribution of the work is the establishment of a procedure to implement a matched forward and backprojection operator pair associated with the discrete imaging model, which permits application of a wide-range of modern image reconstruction algorithms that can mitigate the effects of data incompleteness and noise. The forward and backprojection operators are based on the k-space pseudospectral method for computing numerical solutions to the PA wave equation in the time domain. The developed reconstruction methodology is investigated by use of both computer-simulated and experimental PACT measurement data.

physics.med-ph↗