Latest 3D photoacoustic images - to see more and find out how these were obtained, click here

The Photoacoustic Imaging Goup was founded in 2002 and forms a sub-group of the UCL Biomedical Optics Research Laboratory, BORL. It currently comprises 14 researchers, funded through a combination of UK research council grants and industrial sponsorship. Our activities are directed towards the development of a promising new method of non-invasive biomedical imaging based upon the use of laser-generated acoustic waves for visualising the internal structure and function of soft tissues. Potential applications include the clinical assessment of breast cancer, vascular disease and skin abnormalities. The technique also has important applications as a research tool in the basic life sciences for undertaking molecular and genomic imaging studies, for example studying tumour physiology. Our current research encompasses the full range of activities in photoacoustic methods: photoacoustic detection and excitation instrumentation, modelling of photoacoustic signals, image reconstruction algorithms, spectroscopic methods and the application of the technique in the clinical and life sciences.

In addition to biomedical photoacoustic imaging, a range of ultrasound field measurement and imaging tools based upon the use of Fabry Perot polymer film sensing interferometers is being developed. These include a miniature wideband fibre optic hydrophone for characterising medical and industrial ultrasound fields and high speed 2D arrays for field visualisation and imaging applications in medicine and industrial NDT.

Latest additions

2 postdoctoral research positions available click here for further details

k-Wave - a Matlab toolbox for the simulation of photoacoustic and ultrasound fields

Recently published articles:

Beard PC (2011) Biomedical Photoacoustic Imaging, Interface Focus, 1(4), 602-631 Download PDF file

Zhang EZ, Povazay B, Laufer J, Alex A, Hofer B, Pedley B, Glittenberg C, Treeby B, Cox B, Beard P, and Drexler W (2011) Multimodal photoacoustic and optical coherence tomography scanner using an all optical detection scheme for 3D morphological skin imaging, Biomedical Optics Express, 2(8), 2202-2215 Download PDF file

Treeby BE, Tumen M, and Cox BT (2011) Time domain simulation of harmonic ultrasound images and beam patterns in 3D using the k-space pseudospectral method, MICCAI, Part I, Vol. 6891, pp. 369-376 (Springer, Heidelberg)

Treeby BE, Varslot TK, Zhang EZ, Laufer JG, Beard PC (2011) Automatic sound speed selection in photoacoustic image reconstruction using an autofocus approach, Journal of Biomedical Optics 16, 090501 Download PDF file

Treeby BE, Zhang EZ, Thomas AS, Cox BT (2011) Measurement of the ultrasound attenuation and dispersion in whole human blood and its components from 0-70MHz, Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology 37(2), 289-300 Download PDF file

Treeby BE, Zhang EZ, Cox BT (2010) Photoacoustic tomography in absorbing acoustic media using time reversal, Inverse Problems, 26(11), 115003 Download PDF file

Laufer J, Zhang E, Beard P (2010) Evaluation of absorbing chromophores used in tissue phantoms for quantitative photoacoustic spectroscopy and imaging, Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics, 16(3), 600-608 Download PDF file

Cox BT, Laufer JG, Beard PC (2010) Quantitative photoacoustic image reconstruction using fluence dependent absorbers, Biomedical Optics Express, 1(1), 201-208 Download PDF file

Treeby BE and Cox BT (2010) Modelling power law absorption and dispersion for acoustic propagation using the fractional Laplacian, Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 127(5), 2741-2748 Download PDF file

Cox BT, Treeby BE (2010) Artifact trapping during time reversal photoacoustic imaging for acoustically heterogeneous media, IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging, 29(2), 387-396 Download PDF file

Laufer J, Cox B, Zhang Z, Beard P (2010) Quantitative determination of chromophore concentrations from 2D photoacoustic images using a nonlinear model-based inversion scheme, Applied Optics, 49(8), 1219-1233 Download PDF file

Treeby BE, Cox BT (2010) k-Wave: MATLAB toolbox for the simulation and reconstruction of photoacoustic wave fields, Journal of Biomedical Optics, 15(2), 021314 Download PDF file

Treeby BE, and Pan J (2009) A practical examination of the errors arising in the direct collocation boundary element method of acoustic scattering, Engineering Analysis with Boundary Elements 33, 1302-1315 Download PDF file

Treeby BE, Cox BT, Zhang EZ, Patch SK, Beard PC (2009) Measurement of broadband temperature-dependent ultrasonic attenuation and dispersion using photoacoustics, IEEE Transactions on Ultrasound, Ferroelectrics and frequency control 56(8), 1666-1676 Download PDF file

Morris P, Hurrell A, Shaw A, Zhang E, Beard P (2009) A Fabry–Pérot fiber-optic ultrasonic hydrophone for the simultaneous measurement of temperature and acoustic pressure, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 125(6), 3611-3622 Download PDF file

Cox BT, Arridge SR, Beard PC, (2009) Estimating chromophore distributions from multiwavelength photoacoustic images, Journal of the Optical Society of America A, 26(2), 443-445. Download PDF file

Cox BT, Beard PC (2009) Photoacoustic tomography with a single detector in a reverberant cavity, Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 25(3), 1426-1436. Download PDF here

Zhang EZ, Laufer JG, Pedley RB, Beard PC (2009) In vivo high-resolution 3D photoacoustic imaging of superficial vascular anatomy, Physics in Medicine and Biology, 54, 1035-1046. Download PDF file

Laufer J, Zhang E, Raivich G, Beard P (2009) Three-dimensional noninvasive imaging of the vasculature in the mouse brain using a high resolution photoacoustic scanner, Applied Optics, 48(10), D299-D306.
Download PDF file

Zhang, E, Laufer, J, Beard, P (2008): Backward-mode multiwavelength photoacoustic scanner using a planar Fabry-Perot polymer film ultrasound sensor for high-resolution three-dimensional imaging of biological tissues, Applied Optics 47, 561-577. Download PDF file

For a full list of publications, click here