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Photoacoustic Microscopy (PAM)

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Photoacoustic Microscopy (PAM)

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Photoacoustic microscopy (PAM) is a hybrid in vivo imaging technique that detects optical contrast via the photoacoustic effect. Unlike the pure optical microscopy techniques discussed later, PAM takes advantage of the weak acoustic scattering in tissue and thus breaks through the optical depth penetration limit (~ 1 mm) in soft tissues. Since ultrasonic scattering in tissue is three orders of magnitude weaker than the optical scattering, PAM can effectively image at depths up to a few millimeters.In PAM a laser beam is focused using an objective lens and the light passes through a water tank that is in contact with the sample to be imaged. This light is absorbed at the focus, heats the sample, and induces an initial pressure rise which propagates through the tissues as a wide-band acoustic wave.

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