High-resolution functional photoacoustic tomography

All-optical imaging has high contrast but poor spatial resolution beyond the ballistic and quasiballistic regimes. All-ultrasonic imaging has high spatial resolution but poor contrast for early stage tumors. Photoacoustic tomography combines the high optical contrast and the high ultrasonic resolution. Our work in this emerging area of research will be summarized in this invited talk. In this technology, a diffraction-based inverse-source problem is solved in the image reconstruction, for which our group developed the rigorous reconstruction theory. We developed a prototype and accomplished noninvasive transdermal and transcranial functional imaging of small-animal brains in vivo.