Fiber laser technologies for photoacoustic microscopy

• Main Authors: Long Jin, Yizhi Liang
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: SpringerOpen 2021-04-01
• Series: Visual Computing for Industry, Biomedicine, and Art
• Subjects: Fiber lasers; Fiber sensors; Photoacoustic imaging; Photoacoustic microscopy
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1186/s42492-021-00076-y

Abstract Fiber laser technology has experienced a rapid growth over the past decade owing to increased applications in precision measurement and optical testing, medical care, and industrial applications, including laser welding, cleaning, and manufacturing. A fiber laser can output laser pulses with high energy, a high repetition rate, a controllable wavelength, low noise, and good beam quality, making it applicable in photoacoustic imaging. Herein, recent developments in fiber-laser-based photoacoustic microscopy (PAM) are reviewed. Multispectral PAM can be used to image oxygen saturation or lipid-rich biological tissues by applying a Q-switched fiber laser, a stimulated Raman scattering-based laser source, or a fiber-based supercontinuum source for photoacoustic excitation. PAM can also incorporate a single-mode fiber laser cavity as a high-sensitivity ultrasound sensor by measuring the acoustically induced lasing-frequency shift. Because of their small size and high flexibility, compact head-mounted, wearable, or hand-held imaging modalities and better photoacoustic endoscopes can be enabled using fiber-laser-based PAM.