Ultracompact high-resolution photoacoustic microscopy

Optical resolution photoacoustic microscopy (ORPAM), benefiting from rich optical contrast, scalable acoustic resolution, and deep penetration depth, is of great importance for the fields of biology and medicine. However, limited by the size and performance of reported optical/acoustic scanners, existing portable/handheld ORPAMs are bulky and heavy, and suffer from low imaging quality/speed. Here, we present an ultracompact ORPAM probe, which is miniature and light, and has high imaging quality. The probe only weighs 20 grams and has an outer size of 22 mm × 30 mm × 13 mm, a high lateral resolution of 3.8 μm, and an effective imaging domain of 2 mm × 2 mm. To show its advantages over existing ORPAMs, we apply this probe to image vasculatures of internal organs in a rat abdominal cavity and inspect the entire human oral cavity.