Noncontact holographic detection for photoacoustic tomography

A holographic method for high-speed, noncontact photoacoustic tomography is introduced and evaluated. Relative changes of the object's topography, induced by the impact of thermoelastic pressure waves, were determined at nanometer sensitivity without physical contact. The object's surface was illuminated with nanosecond laser pulses and imaged with a high-speed CMOS camera. From two interferograms measured before and after excitation of the acoustic wave, surface displacement was calculated and then used as the basis for a tomographic reconstruction of the initial pressure caused by optical absorption. The holographic detection scheme enables variable sampling rates of the photoacoustic signal of up to 50 MHz. The total acquisition times for complete volumes with 230 MVoxel is far below 1 s. Measurements of silicone and porcine skin tissue phantoms with embedded artificial absorbers, which served as a model for human subcutaneous vascular networks, were possible. Three-dimensional reconstructions of the absorbing structures show details with a diameter of 310  μm up to a depth of 2.5 mm. Theoretical limitations and the experimental sensitivity, as well as the potential for in vivo imaging depending on the detection repetition rate, are analyzed and discussed.