Single Sensor Interventional All-Optical Ultrasound Imaging: Beam Characteristics and Bandwidth Performance

Optical ultrasound is an emerging imaging paradigm that utilises optical fibres to emit and receive ultrasound. Their small lateral dimensions enable highly miniaturised imaging probes, for a range of interventional applications. This work presents a numerical study to determine the beam width, divergence angle and pressure retention for a range of probe geometries. Additionally, pulse-echo imaging of point scatterer targets is presented, and the impact of bandwidth filtering investigated. The results from this study provide the basis for developing a wide range of single sensor ultrasound devices.