Concurrent photoacoustic and ultrasound microscopy with a coaxial dual-element ultrasonic transducer.

Simultaneous photoacoustic and ultrasound (PAUS) imaging has attracted increasing attention in biomedical research to probe the optical and mechanical properties of tissue. However, the resolution for majority of the existing PAUS systems is on the order of 1 mm as the majority are designed for clinical use with low-frequency US detection. Here we developed a concurrent PAUS microscopy that consists of optical-resolution photoacoustic microscopy (OR-PAM) and high-frequency US pulse-echo imaging. This dual-modality system utilizes a novel coaxial dual-element ultrasonic transducer (DE-UST) and provides anatomical and functional information with complementary contrast mechanisms, achieving a spatial resolution of 7 μm for PA imaging and 106 μm for US imaging. We performed phantom studies to validate the system's performance. The vasculature of a mouse's hind paw was imaged to demonstrate the potential of this hybrid system for biomedical applications.