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.