Blind-deconvolution optical-resolution photoacoustic microscopy in vivo

Optical-resolution photoacoustic microscopy (OR-PAM) is becoming a vital tool for studying the microcirculation system in vivo. By increasing the numerical aperture of optical focusing, the lateral resolution of OR-PAM can be improved; however, the depth of focus and thus the imaging range will be sacrificed correspondingly. In this work, we report our development of blind-deconvolution optical-resolution photoacoustic microscopy (BD-PAM) that can provide a lateral resolution ~2-fold finer than that of conventional OR-PAM (3.04 vs. 5.78μm), without physically increasing the system's numerical aperture. The improvement achieved with BD-PAM is demonstrated by imaging graphene nanoparticles and the microvasculature of mice ears in vivo. Our results suggest that BD-PAM may become a valuable tool for many biomedical applications that require both fine spatial resolution and extended depth of focus.