Multiscale high-speed photoacoustic microscopy based on free-space light transmission and a MEMS scanning mirror

The conventional photoacoustic microscopy (PAM) system allows trade-offs between lateral resolution and imaging depth, limiting its applications in biological imaging in vivo. Here we present an integrated optical-resolution (OR) and acoustic-resolution (AR) multiscale PAM based on free-space light transmission and fast microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) scanning. The lateral resolution for OR is 4.9 µm, and the lateral resolution for AR is 114.5 µm. The maximum imaging depth for OR is 0.7 mm, and the maximum imaging depth for AR is 4.1 mm. The imaging speed can reach 50 k Alines per second. The high signal-to-noise ratios and wavelength throughput are achieved by delivering light via free-space, and the high speed is achieved by a MEMS scanning mirror. The blood vasculature from superficial skin to the deep tissue of a mouse leg was imaged in vivo using two different resolutions to demonstrate the multiscale imaging capability.