Possible temperature effects computed for acoustic microscopy used for living cells

Imaging of living cells or tissues at a microscopic resolution, where GHz frequencies are used, provides a foundation for many new biological applications. The possible temperature increase causing a destructive influence on the living cells should be then avoided. However, there is no information on possible local temperature increases at these very high frequencies where, due to strongly focused ultrasonic beams, nonlinear propagation effects occur. Acoustic parameters of living cells were assumed to be close to those of water; therefore, the power density of heat sources in a water medium was determined as a basic quantity. Hence, the numerical solution of temperature distributions at the frequency of 1 GHz was computed for high and low powers generated by the transducer equal to 0.32 W and 0.002 W. In the first case, typical nonlinear propagation effects were demonstrated and, in the second one, propagation was almost linear. The focal temperature increase obtained in water equaled 14 degrees C for the highest possible theoretical repetition frequency of fr = 10 MHz and for the thermal insulation at the sapphire lens-water boundary. Simultaneously, the scanning velocity of the tested object was assumed to be incomparably low in respect to the acoustic beam velocity. The maximum temperature increase in water occurred exactly at this boundary, being equal there to 20 degrees C. It was shown that, first of all, the very high absorption of water was significant for the temperature distribution in the investigated region, suppressing the focal temperature peaks. Because the temperature increases are proportional to the repetition frequency, so for example, at its practical value of fr = 0.1 MHz, all temperature increases will be 100 times lower than listed above. For the low transducer power of 0.002 W, the corresponding temperature increases were about 140 times lower than those for the high power of 0.32 W. The presented solutions are devoted mainly to the reflection pulse mode; however, they can be also applied for the transmitting (continuous-wave) mode, as shown in an example. Pressure distributions were computed for the acoustic field of the microscope for the first and higher harmonics. Hence, at the frequency of 1 GHz, the effective focal radius in water measured as the -6-dB amplitude pressure drop was found to be 1,1 microm, and 0.7 microm for the second harmonic, independently of the assumed transducer power. So the width of the beam, scanning the living cells in the focal region, was equal to 2.2 microm at the fundamental frequency of 1 GHz.