Interferometric fiber optic sensors for biomedical applications of optoacoustic imaging.

We present a non-metallic interferometric silica optical fiber ultrasonic wideband sensor for optoacoustic imaging applications. The ultrasonic sensitivity of this sensor has been characterized over the frequency range from 1 to 10 MHz. A comparative analysis has been carried out between this sensor and an array of piezoelectric transducers using optoacoustic signals generated from an optical absorbent embedded in a tissue mimicking phantom. Also, a two dimensional reconstructed image of the phantom using the fiber interferometric sensor is presented and compared to the image obtained using the Laser Optoacoustic Imaging System, LOIS-64B. The feasibility of our fiber optic based sensor for wideband ultrasonic detection is demonstrated.