Three-dimensional photoacoustic imaging via scanning a one dimensional linear unfocused ultrasound array

Three-dimensional (3D) photoacoustic imaging can be achieved by a twodimensional (2D) ultrasound array matrix. However, the 2D matrix consisting of hundreds or thousands of transducer elements makes it not only expensive, but also a big technical challenge for both probe manufacturing and parallel data acquisition. In this study, we performed the photoacoustic imaging by scanning an unfocused linear ultrasound array probe over a planar geometry, resulting in an equivalent 2D matrix probe. The phantom study demonstrated that this method substantially increased imaging quality, which has great potential for animal and clinical photoacoustic imaging. (C)2017 Optical Society of America