Related Experiment Video
Updated: Dec 21, 2025

Wideband Optical Detector of Ultrasound for Medical Imaging Applications
Published on: May 11, 2014
Increased SNR in acousto-optic imaging via coded ultrasound transmission
Abstract:
Acousto-optic imaging (AOI) is a non-invasive method that uses acoustic modulation to map the light fluence inside biological tissue. In many AOI implementations, ultrasound pulses are used in a time-gated measurement to perform depth-resolved imaging without the need for mechanical scanning. However, to achieve high axial resolution, it is required that ultrasound pulses with few cycles are used, limiting the modulation strength. In this Letter, we develop a new approach to pulse-based AOI in which coded ultrasound transmission is used. In coded-transmission AOI (CT-AOI), one may achieve an axial resolution that corresponds to a single cycle, but with a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) that scales as the square root of the number of cycles. Using CT-AOI with 79 cycles, we experimentally demonstrate over four-fold increase in SNR in comparison to a single-cycle AOI scheme.
Related Concept Videos
Ultrasonography
During an ultrasonography procedure, a handheld device called...
Imaging Studies II: Ultrasonography

