Optical phase contrast imaging for absolute, quantitative measurements of ultrasonic fields with frequencies up to 20MHz

Published

June 29, 2021

Author(s)

Aaron Goldfain, Christopher Yung, Kimberly Briggman, Jeeseong C. Hwang

Abstract

The technique of phase contrast imaging, combined with tomographic reconstructions, can rapidly measure ultrasonic fields propagating in water, including ultrasonic fields with complex wavefront shapes, which are difficult to characterize with standard hydrophone measurements. Furthermore, the technique can measure the absolute pressure amplitudes of ultrasonic fields without requiring a pressure calibration. Absolute pressure measurements have been previously demonstrated using optical imaging methods for ultrasonic frequencies below 2.5 MHz. The present work demonstrates that phase contrast imaging can accurately measure ultrasonic fields with frequencies up to 20MHz and pressure amplitudes near 10 kPa. Accurate measurements at high ultrasonic frequencies are performed by tailoring the measurement conditions to limit optical diffraction as guided by a simple dimensionless parameter. In some situations, differences between high frequency measurements made with the phase contrast method and a calibrated hydrophone become apparent, and the reasons for these differences are discussed. Extending optical imaging measurements to high ultrasonic frequencies could facilitate quantitative applications of ultrasound measurements in nondestructive testing and medical therapeutics and diagnostics such as photoacoustic imaging.

Citation

Journal of the Acoustical Society of America

Volume

149

Issue

6

Pub Type

Journals

Download Paper

https://doi.org/10.1121/10.0005431

Local Download

Keywords

ultrasound, phase imaging, phase contrast, pressure, hydrophone, calibration

Citation

Goldfain, A. , Yung, C. , Briggman, K. and Hwang, J. (2021), Optical phase contrast imaging for absolute, quantitative measurements of ultrasonic fields with frequencies up to 20MHz, Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, [online], https://doi.org/10.1121/10.0005431, https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=931707 (Accessed October 21, 2025)