Single Element-Based Dual Focused Photoacoustic Microscopy

We present a single element-based dual focused photoacoustic microscopy (PAM) that shows improved signal-to-noise ratio and lateral resolution compared to conventional single focused PAM in the out-of-focus region. This dual focused PAM is based on the novel design of a single element-based dual focused transducer coupled with improved image reconstruction method using synthetic aperture dual focusing technique (SADFT). Polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) was used to fabricate the dual-focused transducer and phantom experiments were conducted to demonstrate the advantages of this novel transducer design. Experimental results obtained show that the signal-to-noise ratio and lateral resolution can be improved with a factor of 2X in the conventionally out-of-focus region using this technique.