A broadband all-optical plane-wave ultrasound imaging system for high-resolution 3D imaging of biological tissues is presented. The system is based on the planar Fabry-Perot (FP) scanner for ultrasound detection and the photoacoustic generation of ultrasound in a Carbon-Nanotube-Polydimethylsiloxane (CNT-PDMS) composite film. The FP sensor head was coated with the CNT-PDMS film to act as an ultrasound transmitting layer for pulse-echo imaging. Exciting the CNT-PDMS coating with nanosecond laser pulses generated monopolar plane-wave ultrasound pulses with MPa-range peak pressures, and a-6dB bandwidth of 22 MHz, that were transmitted into the target. The resulting scattered acoustic field was detected across a 15 mm × 15 mm scan area with a step size of 100 and an optically defined element size of 64. The-3dB bandwidth of the sensor was 30 MHz. A 3D image of the scatterer distribution was then recovered using a k-space reconstruction algorithm. To obtain a measure of spatial resolution, the instrument line-spread function (LSF) was measured as a function of position. At the centre of the scan area the depth dependent lateral LSF ranged from 46 to 65 for depths between 1 and 12 mm. The vertical LSF was independent of position and measured to be 44 over the entire field of view. To demonstrate the ability of the system to provide high-resolution 3D images, phantoms with well-defined scattering structures of arbitrary geometry were imaged. To demonstrate its suitability for imaging biological tissues, phantoms with similar impedance mismatches, sound speed and scattering properties to those present in tissue, and ex-vivo tissue samples were imaged. Compared to conventional piezoelectric based ultrasound scanners this approach offers the potential for improved image quality and higher resolution for superficial tissue imaging. Since the FP scanner is capable of high-resolution 3D photoacoustic imaging of in-vivo biological tissues, the system could ultimately be developed into an instrument for dual-mode all-optical ultrasound and photoacoustic imaging.

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