arXiv subjects

Lu Lan

Publications and source records attributed to Lu Lan.

11 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2025

Miniaturized optically-generated Bessel beam ultrasound for volumetric transcranial brain stimulation

Non-invasive stimulation of small, variably shaped brain sub-regions is crucial for advancing our understanding of brain functions. Current ultrasound neuromodulation faces two significant trade-offs when targeting brain sub-regions: miniaturization versus volumetric control and spatial resolution versus transcranial capability. Here, we present an optically-generated Bessel beam ultrasound (OBUS) device designed to overcome these limitations. This 2.33 mm-diameter miniaturized device delivers a column-shaped field achieving a lateral resolution of 152 um and an axial resolution of 1.93 mm, targeting brain sub-regions with an elongated volume of tissue activation. Immunofluorescence imaging of mouse brain slices confirms its ability to stimulate cells at a depth of 2.2 mm. Additionally, OBUS outperforms conventional Gaussian ultrasound in transcranial transmission efficiency and beam shape preservation. Electrophysiological recordings and functional MRI captured rodent brain responses evoked by OBUS, demonstrating OBUS's ability to non-invasively activate neural circuits in intact brains. This technology offers new possibilities for studying brain functions with precision and volumetric control.

q-bio.NC↗

arXiv2022

Optically-generated focused ultrasound for noninvasive brain stimulation with ultrahigh precision

High precision neuromodulation is a powerful tool to decipher neurocircuits and treat neurological diseases. Current non-invasive neuromodulation methods offer limited precision at the millimeter level. Here, we report optically-generated focused ultrasound (OFUS) for non-invasive brain stimulation with ultrahigh precision. OFUS is generated by a soft optoacoustic pad (SOAP) fabricated through embedding candle soot nanoparticles in a curved polydimethylsiloxane film. SOAP generates a transcranial ultrasound focus at 15 MHz with an ultrahigh lateral resolution of 83 um, which is two orders of magnitude smaller than that of conventional transcranial-focused ultrasound (tFUS). Here, we show effective OFUS neurostimulation in vitro with a single ultrasound cycle. We demonstrate submillimeter transcranial stimulation of the mouse motor cortex in vivo. An acoustic energy of 0.6 mJ/cm^2, four orders of magnitude less than that of tFUS, is sufficient for successful OFUS neurostimulation. OFUS offers new capabilities for neuroscience studies and disease treatments by delivering a focus with ultrahigh precision non-invasively.

q-bio.NC↗

arXiv2020

Non-genetic acoustic stimulation of single neurons by a tapered fiber optoacoustic emitter

As an emerging technology, transcranial focused ultrasound has been demonstrated to successfully evoke motor responses in mice, rabbits, and sensory/motor responses in humans. Yet, the spatial resolution of ultrasound does not allow for high-precision stimulation. Here, we developed a tapered fiber optoacoustic emitter (TFOE) for optoacoustic stimulation of neurons with an unprecedented spatial resolution of 20 microns, enabling selective activation of single neurons or subcellular structures, such as axons and dendrites. A single acoustic pulse of 1 microsecond converted by the TFOE from a single laser pulse of 3 nanoseconds is shown as the shortest acoustic stimuli so far for successful neuron activation. The highly localized ultrasound generated by the TFOE made it possible to integrate the optoacoustic stimulation and highly stable patch clamp recording on single neurons. Direct measurements of electrical response of single neurons to acoustic stimulation, which is difficult for conventional ultrasound stimulation, have been demonstrated for the first time. By coupling TFOE with ex vivo brain slice electrophysiology, we unveil cell-type-specific response of excitatory and inhibitory neurons to acoustic stimulation. These results demonstrate that TFOE is a non-genetic single-cell and sub-cellular modulation technology, which could shed new insights into the mechanism of neurostimulation.

q-bio.NC↗

arXiv2019

Ultra-Efficient Conversion of Microwave into Ultrasound Wave through a Split Ring Resonator

Thermo-elastic conversion of electromagnetic wave into ultrasound wave has enabled diverse biomedical applications such as photoacoustic imaging. Microwave, which has ~10 cm long wavelength, can penetrate deeper into tissue than photons, heralding exciting applications such as deep tissue imaging via thermo-acoustic tomography. However, the thermo-acoustic conversion efficiency is very low even with an exogenous contrast agent such as carbon nanotube. Here, we break this low conversion limit through using a split ring resonator (SRR) to effectively collect and concentrate the microwave energy into a sub-millimeter hot spot and subsequently convert the energy into ultrasound wave. Our SRR achieves over three orders of magnitude higher thermo-acoustic conversion efficiency than commonly used thermo-acoustic contrast agents. We further harness the SRR as a wireless, battery-free ultrasound emitter placed under a breast phantom. These results promise exciting potential of SRR for precise thermo-acoustic localization and modulation of subjects in deep tissue.

physics.app-ph↗

arXiv2019

A Fiber Optoacoustic Emitter with Maximized Conversion Efficiency and Controlled Ultrasound Frequency for Biomedical Applications

Focused ultrasound has attracted great attention in minimally invasive therapy, gene delivery, brain stimulation, etc. Frequency below 1 MHz has been identified preferable for high-efficacy drug delivery, gene transfection and neurostimulation due to minimized tissue heating and cell fragmentation. However, the poor spatial resolution of several millimeters and the large device diameter of ~25 mm of current sub-MHz ultrasound technology severely hinders its further applications for effective, precise, safe and wearable biomedical studies and clinical use. To address this issue, we report the development of a novel fiber-based optoacoustic emitter (FOE). The FOE, a new miniaturized ultrasound source, is composed of an optical diffusion coating layer and an expansion coating layer at an optical fiber distal end with a diameter of approximately 500 microns. Taking advantage of the fiber size and diffusive nanoparticles introduced, the ultrasound generated by the FOEs showed a spatial confinement of sub-millimeter. The optoacoustic conversion efficiency was maximized through choosing absorbing nanomaterials and thermal expansion matrix. Controllable frequencies in the range of 0.083 MHz to 5.500 MHz were achieved through using the diffusion layer as a damping material or modifying the nano-composition in the expansion layer. This sub-MHz frequency controllability allows FOEs to be used as a localized ultrasound source for precise cell modulation. We demonstrated optoacoustic cell membrane sonoporation with a localization of sub-millimeter and negligible heat deposition, implicating its broad biomedical applications, including region-specific drug delivery, gene transfection as well as localized neuron stimulation.

physics.med-ph↗

arXiv2018

Bond-Selective Transient Phase Microscopy

Phase-contrast microscopy converts the optical phase introduced by transparent, unlabeled specimens into modulation in the intensity image. Modern phase imaging techniques are capable of quantifying phase shift at each point in the field of view, enabling non-destructive applications in materials and life sciences. However, these attractive features come with the lack of molecular information. To fulfill this gap, we developed a bond-selective transient phase (BSTP) microscope using infrared absorption to excite molecular vibration, resulting in an optical phase change detected through a customized phase microscope. By using pulsed pump and probe lasers, we realized BSTP imaging with high spectral fidelity, sub-microsecond temporal resolution, submicron spatial resolution at 50 frames per second, limited only by the camera sensor. Our approach links the missing molecular bond information to the quantitative phase, which paves a new avenue for spectroscopic imaging in biology and materials science.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2018

Ultrafast Chemical Imaging by Widefield Photothermal Sensing of Infrared Absorption

Infrared (IR) imaging has become a viable tool for visualizing various chemical bonds in a specimen. The performance, however, is limited in terms of spatial resolution and imaging speed. Here, instead of measuring the loss of the IR beam, we utilize a pulsed visible light for a high-throughput, widefield sensing of the transient photothermal effect induced by absorption of single mid-IR pulses. To extract such transient signals, we built a virtual lock-in camera synchronized to the visible probe and IR light pulses with precisely-controlled delays, allowing sub-microsecond temporal resolution determined by the probe pulse width. Our widefield photothermal sensing (WPS) microscope enabled chemical imaging at a speed up to 1250 frames per second, with high spectral fidelity, and offering sub-micron spatial resolution. With the capability of imaging living cells and nanometer-scale polymer films, WPS microscopy opens a new way for high-throughput characterization of biological and material specimens.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2013

Experimentally demonstrated an unidirectional electromagnetic cloak designed by topology optimization

Electromagnetic invisible devices usually designed by transformation optics are rather complicated in material parameters and not suitable for general applications. Recently a topology optimized cloak based on level-set method was proposed to realize nearly perfect cloaking by Fujii et al [Appl. Phys. Lett. 102, 251106 (2013)]. In this work we experimentally implemented this idea and fabricated a unidirectional cloak with a relative large invisible region made of single dielectric material. Good cloaking performance was verified through measurement which consists very well with numerical simulation. The advantages and disadvantages of this optimization method are also discussed.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2013

A transient thermal cloak experimentally realized through a rescaled diffusion equation with anisotropic thermal diffusivity

Transformation optics originating from the invariance of Maxwell's equations under the coordinate mapping has enabled the design and demonstration of many fascinating electromagnetic devices that were unconceivable or deemed impossible before [1-11], and has greatly contributed to the advancement of modern electromagnetism and related researches assisted with the development of metamaterials [12-15]. This technique has been extended to apply to other partial differential equations governing different waves [16-23] or flux [24-28], and has produced various novel functional devices such as acoustic cloaks [20-23] and Schrodinger's 'hat' [19]. In the present work we applied the coordinate transformation to the time-dependent heat diffusion equation [24-28] and achieved the manipulation of the heat flux by predefined diffusion paths. In the experiment we demonstrated a transient thermal cloaking device engineered with thermal metamaterials and successfully hid a centimeter sized strong 'scatter' (thermal disturber), i.e., a vacuum cavity. To facilitate reliable fabrication we adopted the rescaled thermal diffusion equation for various ingredient materials with nearly constant product of the density and heat capacity, and took the anisotropic thermal diffusivities as the key parameters for the design. Our results unambiguously show the practical possibility to implement the complex transformed thermal media with high accuracy and acquire some unprecedented thermodynamic functions, which we believe will help to broaden the current research and pave a new way to manipulate heat for novel device applications.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2013

First experimental demonstration of an isotropic electromagnetic cloak with strict conformal mapping

In the past years quasi-conformal mapping has been typically used to design broadband electromagnetic cloaks. However, this technique has some inherit practical limitations such as the lateral beam shift, rendering the device visible or difficult to hide a large object. In this work we circumvent these issues by using strict conformal mapping to build the first isotropic cloak. Microwave near-field measurement shows that our device (with dielectric constant larger than unity everywhere) has a very good cloaking performance and a broad frequency response. The present dielectric approach could be technically extended to the fabrication of other conformal devices at higher frequencies.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2013

Three Dimensional Subwavelength focus by a near-field plate lens

We implemented the inverse design method to build a thin near-field lens that could produce a desired subwavelength focus by manipulating the near fields of a magnetic dipole source. The flat near-field lens represented by an artificial impedance surface was fabricated by lumped reactive elements (capacitor and inductor) with spatially varying values. In the experiment a desired annular focusing spot with a characteristic size nearly three times smaller than that allowed by the diffraction limit was obtained. Besides high-resolution imaging, the proposed near-field plate could be extended for other interesting applications, such as wireless power transfer or complex wavefront/beam shaper.

physics.optics↗