MIBE Online Seminar: Enabling New Bio-Medical Possibilities with Optical Ultrasound

Topic: Enabling New Bio-Medical Possibilities with Optical Ultrasound

Speaker: Tai Anh La, GCB doctoral candidate at the Chair for Biological and Optical Imaging (Ntziachristos)

Date and Time: Tuesday, 9 November 2021, 1:00 pm

Abstract: Ultrasound is one of the most popular tools in bio-medical applications. The development of bio-medical ultrasound arises from the matured piezoelectric industry, where electrical energy is converted into acoustical energy and vice-versa. However, the interdisciplinarity of the new era often requires ultrasound to work together with other tools both spatially and temporally. This puts the piezoelectric components in disadvantage since their bulkiness and vulnerability to electromagnetic noise become the problems. The rise of laser and photonics components in the last few decades has opened a new possibility where ultrasound could be generated and detected using optical energy. This new approach has potentials to overcome almost every drawback of the traditional piezoelectric technology.
In this small talk, I would like to give a brief overview of this new optical ultrasound concept. Some relevant topics will be addressed including the photoacoustic effect, photoacoustic imaging, detection of sound with light. I will also present some important contributions of our group and mine to the field, as well as discussing the upcoming challenge that we have to solve to bring our solutions to the market.