Light emitting diodes as an excitation source for biomedical photoacoustics

Semiconductor light sources, such as laser diodes or light emitting diodes (LEDs) could provide an inexpensive and compact alternative to traditional Q-switched lasers for photoacoustic imaging. So far, only laser diodes 1-3 operating in the 750 to 905nm wavelength range have been investigated for this purpose. However, operating in the visible wavelength range (400nm to 650nm) where blood is strongly absorbent (<10cm-1) and water absorption is weak (<0.01cm-1) could allow for high contrast photoacoustic images of the superficial vasculature to be achieved. High power laser diodes (<10Watt peak power) are however not available in this wavelength range. High power LEDs could be a potential alternative as they are widely available in the visible wavelength range (400nm to 632nm) and relatively cheap. High power LEDs are generally operated in continuous wave mode and provide average powers of several Watts. The possibility of over driving them by tens of times their rated current when driven at a low duty cycle (<1%), offers the prospect of achieving similar pulse energies (tens of μJ) to that provided by high peak power pulsed laser diodes. To demonstrate the possibility of using high power LEDs as an excitation source for biomedical applications, single point measurements were implemented in a realistic blood vessel phantom. A four colour device was also used to demonstrate the possibility of using LEDs for making spectroscopic measurements. It was shown that when driving all four wavelengths at once, the generated photoacoustic signal could be used to design a filter in order to improve the SNR of the photoacoustic signals generated at each individual wavelength. The possibility of acquiring multiwavelength data sets simultaneously when using Golay excitation methods was also demonstrated. This preliminary study demonstrated the potential for using high power LEDs as an inexpensive and compact excitation source for biomedical photoacoustics.

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