Simultaneous photoacoustic and optical attenuation imaging of single cells using photoacoustic microscopy

A new technique for simultaneously acquiring photoacoustic images as well as images based on the optical attenuation of single cells in a human blood smear was developed. An ultra-high frequency photoacoustic microscope equipped with a 1 GHz transducer and a pulsed 532 nm laser was used to generate the images. The transducer and 20X optical objective used for laser focusing were aligned coaxially on opposing sides of the sample. Absorption of laser photons by the sample yielded conventional photoacoustic (PA) signals, while incident photons which were not attenuated by the sample were absorbed by the transducer, resulting in the formation of a photoacoustic signal (tPA) within the transducer itself. Both PA and tPA signals, which are separated in time, were recorded by the system in a single RF-line. Areas of strong signal in the PA images corresponded to dark regions in the tPA images. Additional details, including the clear delineation of the cell cytoplasm and features in red blood cells, were visible in the tPA image but not the corresponding PA image. This imaging method has applications in probing the optical absorption and attenuation characteristics of biological cells with sub-cellular resolution.