Photoacoustic-guided reflection-mode wavefront shaping through dynamic biological tissue
Abstract
Strong optical scattering limits the depth at which light can be focused and used for imaging in biological tissue. Photoacoustic (PA)-guided wavefront shaping enables non-invasive light focusing in scattering media, but most existing implementations require optical and acoustic access from opposite sides of the sample and a rigidly aligned free-space optical path, which have confined these demonstrations to thin or static samples. Here, we combine a real-valued intensity transmission matrix (RVITM) algorithm with a photoacoustic guidestar (PA-RVITM) in a reflection-mode configuration. Modulated light is delivered through a flexible multimode fiber passing through the central aperture of a focused ultrasound transducer, enabling optical illumination and acoustic detection from the same side of the sample without a free-space combiner. Fiber integration preserved the wavefront shaping performance, and the reflection-mode PA-RVITM system achieved sub-second wavefront optimization with a ~14-fold PA signal enhancement through a diffuser. In ex vivo chicken breast tissue, the enhancement decreased with tissue thickness, reaching ~3.5 through a 2-mm chicken breast layer, with a speckle decorrelation time of ~450 ms. By performing an independent RVITM optimization at each scan position, our system enabled photoacoustic microscopy of a black nylon wire through the same layer, reducing the imaged line width from ~141 μm to ~102 μm, close to the nominal diameter of ~100 μm. This work advances PA-guided wavefront shaping toward a compact, same-side implementation for future biomedical therapeutic and imaging applications.
Related
- Nonlocal wavefront shaping through complex media
- Recoil-heating modulation in levitated optomechanics through optical wavefront shaping
- A practical guide to Digital Micro-mirror Devices (DMDs) for wavefront shaping
- Largest eigenvalue statistics of wavefront shaping in complex scattering media
- The vanishing distance: a practical range boundary for dynamic wavefront shaping
BibTeX
@misc{liu2026photoacousticguided,
title = {{Photoacoustic-guided reflection-mode wavefront shaping through dynamic biological tissue}},
author = {Xuan Liu and Sacha Noimark and Wenfeng Xia and Sebastien Ourselin and Tianrui Zhao},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2610.20237},
eprint = {2610.20237},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.20237},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Photoacoustic-guided reflection-mode wavefront shaping through dynamic biological tissue
AU - Xuan Liu
AU - Sacha Noimark
AU - Wenfeng Xia
AU - Sebastien Ourselin
AU - Tianrui Zhao
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/14
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2610.20237
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.20237
AB - Strong optical scattering limits the depth at which light can be focused and used for imaging in biological tissue. Photoacoustic (PA)-guided wavefront shaping enables non-invasive light focusing in scattering media, but most existing implementations require optical and acoustic access from opposite sides of the sample and a rigidly aligned free-space optical path, which have confined these demonstrations to thin or static samples. Here, we combine a real-valued intensity transmission matrix (RVITM) algorithm with a photoacoustic guidestar (PA-RVITM) in a reflection-mode configuration. Modulated light is delivered through a flexible multimode fiber passing through the central aperture of a focused ultrasound transducer, enabling optical illumination and acoustic detection from the same side of the sample without a free-space combiner. Fiber integration preserved the wavefront shaping performance, and the reflection-mode PA-RVITM system achieved sub-second wavefront optimization with a ~14-fold PA signal enhancement through a diffuser. In ex vivo chicken breast tissue, the enhancement decreased with tissue thickness, reaching ~3.5 through a 2-mm chicken breast layer, with a speckle decorrelation time of ~450 ms. By performing an independent RVITM optimization at each scan position, our system enabled photoacoustic microscopy of a black nylon wire through the same layer, reducing the imaged line width from ~141 μm to ~102 μm, close to the nominal diameter of ~100 μm. This work advances PA-guided wavefront shaping toward a compact, same-side implementation for future biomedical therapeutic and imaging applications.
ER -