Vibrational Photoacoustic Tomography: Chemical Imaging beyond the Ballistic Regime

Proof-of-concept of vibrational photoacoustic tomography is demonstrated with a homebuilt Raman laser generating greater than 100 mJ of energy per pulse at 1197 nm wavelength. We employed this system for excitation of second overtone transition of C-H bonds. Vibrational photoacoustic signal from C-H rich polyethylene tube phantom placed under 3 cm thick chicken breast tissue was obtained with a signal to noise ratio of 2.5. Further, we recorded photoacoustic image of a polyethylene ring placed under 5 mm chicken tissue with excellent contrast. This development opens new opportunities of performing label free vibrational imaging in the deep tissue regime.