Photo-acoustic concave transmitter for generating high frequency focused ultrasound

We present a photo-acoustic concave transmitter to generate and subsequently focus high frequency ultrasound. Owing to a short time-duration of pulse laser beam, high frequency acoustic waves and tight focusing can be easily achieved. The transmitter consists of a light-absorbing film coated on a concave spherical structure. For detection, we used an optical microring ultrasound detector capable of covering a broadband and high frequency spectrum of photo-acoustic source. A spot width of ∼44 μm was obtained at the focal plane. As the finite size and the specific shape of the microring cause a geometrical effect on the detection process, especially for high frequency components, we performed a 2-D spatial signal processing to remove this effect and extract a pure pressure distribution. The aperture for acoustic focusing could be optically controlled by changing the size of pulse laser beam.