In this paper, based on the contradictions among the scanning range, imaging speed of traditional photoacoustic microscope, and the prospect of miniaturization, a photoacoustic microscope based on a transparent transducer is proposed, and a series of works such as hardware design, software development and simulation experiment of the system are completed. On the basis of the traditional photoacoustic microscope, our laboratory independently develops a transparent ultrasonic transducer to optimize the optical path of the system. A set of photoacoustic microscope based on the transparent ultrasonic transducer is designed. The lateral resolution of the system is 18 μm and the signal-to-noise ratio is up to 38 dB, which both give a large imaging field of view and a fast imaging speed. A single imaging can achieve 16 mm×16 mm range. The laser repetition rate of the system is 5 kHz and the imaging speed of 100 Hz/mm can be achieved when the scanning step is 20 μm. At the same time, the vascular morphology in the biological tissue imaging experiment is consistent with that in the photos, suggesting that the system has the potential to be applied in the biomedical field. Above all, the photoacoustic microscope based on a transparent transducer can give consideration to both a large imaging field of view and a fast imaging speed, and has a good application prospect in system miniaturization and functional imaging of biological tissues.
Yong He, Tangyun Liao, Junwei Wu, Lijun Deng, Yu Deng, Lüming Zeng, Xuanrong Ji. Design of Photoacoustic Microscope Based on Transparent Ultrasonic Transducer[J]. Chinese Journal of Lasers, 2022, 49(3): 0307001