Parallel interrogation of the chalcogenide-based micro-ring sensor array for photoacoustic tomography

Jingshun Pan; Qiang Li; Yaoming Feng; Ruifeng Zhong; Zhihao Fu; Shuixian Yang; Weiyuan Sun; Bin Zhang; Qi Sui; Jun Chen; Yuecheng Shen; Zhaohui Li

doi:10.1038/s41467-023-39075-3

Parallel interrogation of the chalcogenide-based micro-ring sensor array for photoacoustic tomography

Nat Commun. 2023 Jun 5;14(1):3250. doi: 10.1038/s41467-023-39075-3.

Authors

Jingshun Pan^#^{1

2

3}, Qiang Li^#¹, Yaoming Feng¹, Ruifeng Zhong¹, Zhihao Fu¹, Shuixian Yang¹, Weiyuan Sun¹, Bin Zhang^{1

2}, Qi Sui², Jun Chen¹, Yuecheng Shen^{4

5}, Zhaohui Li^{6

7}

Affiliations

¹ School of Electronics and Information Technology, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Information Processing Chips and Systems, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, 510275, China.
² Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Zhuhai), Zhuhai, 519000, China.
³ Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Nanophotonic Functional Materials and Devices, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, 510006, China.
⁴ School of Electronics and Information Technology, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Information Processing Chips and Systems, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, 510275, China. shenyuecheng@mail.sysu.edu.cn.
⁵ Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Zhuhai), Zhuhai, 519000, China. shenyuecheng@mail.sysu.edu.cn.
⁶ School of Electronics and Information Technology, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Information Processing Chips and Systems, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, 510275, China. lzhh88@mail.sysu.edu.cn.
⁷ Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Zhuhai), Zhuhai, 519000, China. lzhh88@mail.sysu.edu.cn.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Photoacoustic tomography (PAT), also known as optoacoustic tomography, is an attractive imaging modality that provides optical contrast with acoustic resolutions. Recent progress in the applications of PAT largely relies on the development and employment of ultrasound sensor arrays with many elements. Although on-chip optical ultrasound sensors have been demonstrated with high sensitivity, large bandwidth, and small size, PAT with on-chip optical ultrasound sensor arrays is rarely reported. In this work, we demonstrate PAT with a chalcogenide-based micro-ring sensor array containing 15 elements, while each element supports a bandwidth of 175 MHz (-6 dB) and a noise-equivalent pressure of 2.2 mPaHz^-1/2. Moreover, by synthesizing a digital optical frequency comb (DOFC), we further develop an effective means of parallel interrogation to this sensor array. As a proof of concept, parallel interrogation with only one light source and one photoreceiver is demonstrated for PAT with this sensor array, providing images of fast-moving objects, leaf veins, and live zebrafish. The superior performance of the chalcogenide-based micro-ring sensor array and the effectiveness of the DOFC-enabled parallel interrogation offer great prospects for advancing applications in PAT.