Deformable and durable phantoms with controlled density of scatterers

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Optics
• Materials Science

Background:

• Optical tissue phantoms are crucial for calibrating and validating optical imaging techniques.
• Existing phantoms often lack the specific microstructural control or mechanical properties required for advanced investigations.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop novel, deformable, and durable optical tissue phantoms with a well-defined microstructure.
• To provide a versatile phantom platform for speckle and elastography investigations in optical coherence tomography (OCT).

Main Methods:

• Fabrication involved embedding silica microspheres within a silicone matrix.
• Characterization utilized scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and optical measurements.

Main Results:

• Successfully developed deformable and durable optical tissue phantoms with a unique microstructure.
• Demonstrated the utility of these phantoms for OCT-based speckle and elastography.
• Confirmed the fabrication process yields consistent and reproducible results.

Conclusions:

• The developed optical tissue phantoms offer a novel solution for advanced optical imaging research.
• The fabrication technique is adaptable for creating phantoms with tailored optical and mechanical properties.
• These phantoms have broad applicability beyond OCT, including other optical imaging fields.