Frequency response and directivity of highly sensitive optical microresonator detectors for photoacoustic imaging

摘要

Plano-convex optical microresonator detectors have been developed as an alternative to planar Fabry-Perot (FP) sensors used in all-optical photoacoustic imaging systems with the potential to provide two or more orders-of-magnitude higher detection sensitivity. This study further characterises the performance of these detectors by investigating their normal incidence frequency response and frequency-dependent directivity. It is shown that sensors with thicknesses in the range ～50-320um provide broadband, smooth frequency response characteristics and low directional sensitivity. This suggests that a photoacoustic imaging system based on microresonator detectors may be capable of imaging with similar performance to the FP system but with significantly higher sensitivity, paving the way to deep tissue imaging applications such as the clinical assessment of breast cancer and preclinical whole body small animal imaging.