Towards acousto-optic tissue imaging with nanosecond laser pulses.

We present a way to generate acousto-optical signals in timovssue-like media with nanosecond laser pulses. Our method is based on recording and analyzing speckle patterns formed by interaction of nanosecond laser pulses with tissue, without and with simultaneous application of ultrasound. Stroboscopic application allows visualizing the temporal behavior of speckles while the ultrasound is propagating through the medium. We investigate two ways of quantifying the acousto-optic effect, viz. adding and subtracting speckle patterns obtained at various ultrasound phases. Both methods are compared with the existing speckle contrast method using a 2D scan and are found to perform similarly. Our method gives outlook on overcoming the speckle decorrelation problem in acousto-optics, and therefore brings in-vivo acousto-optic measurements one step closer. Furthermore it enables combining acousto-optics and photoacoustics in one setup with a single laser.

Tandem pulsed acousto-optics: obtaining the tagged light fraction from modulated non-ideal speckle patterns.

Recently we presented novel methods for acousto-optic (AO) imaging of biological tissues, taking (1) the mean square difference of speckle patterns (subtraction method) or (2) the contrast of the summation of speckle patterns (summation method) acquired from nanosecond pulses of coherent light, fired at different ultrasound phases. In this study we relate the two methods both analytically and experimentally. We experimentally show that these two methods are nearly identical provided that the maximum achievable speckle contrast is determined correctly. We show with simulations that after correction the outcome is independent of experimental detection parameters. This makes the AO methods in this study reliable, allowing quantifying speckle observations in terms of the ultrasonically tagged fractions of light. The use of tandem nanosecond pulses in one burst of ultrasound overcomes the challenge of tissue dynamics.

Tandem-pulsed acousto-optics: an analytical framework of modulated high-contrast speckle patterns.

Recently we presented acousto-optic (AO) probing of scattering media using addition or subtraction of speckle patterns due to tandem nanosecond pulses. Here we present a theoretical framework for ideal (polarized, noise-free) speckle patterns with unity contrast that links ultrasound-induced optical phase modulation, the fraction of light that is tagged by ultrasound, speckle contrast, mean square difference of speckle patterns and the contrast of the summation of speckle patterns acquired at different ultrasound phases. We derive the important relations from basic assumptions and definitions, and then validate them with simulations. For ultrasound-generated phase modulation angles below 0.7 rad (assuming uniform modulation), we are now able to relate speckle pattern statistics to the acousto-optic phase modulation. Hence our theory allows quantifying speckle observations in terms of ultrasonically tagged fractions of light for near-unity-contrast speckle patterns.