Optical focusing inside scattering media with time-reversed ultrasound microbubble encoded light

An ultrasensitive and broadband transparent ultrasound transducer for ultrasound and photoacoustic imaging in-vivo

Transparent ultrasound transducers (TUTs) can seamlessly integrate optical and ultrasound components, but acoustic impedance mismatch prohibits existing TUTs from being practical substitutes for conventional opaque ultrasound transducers. Here, we propose a transparent adhesive based on a silicon dioxide-epoxy composite to fabricate matching and backing layers with acoustic impedances of 7.5 and 4-6 MRayl, respectively. By employing these layers, we develop an ultrasensitive, broadband TUT with 63% bandwidth at a single resonance frequency and high optical transparency ( > 80%), comparable to conventional opaque ultrasound transducers. Our TUT maximises both acoustic power and transfer efficiency with maximal spectrum flatness while minimising ringdowns. This enables high contrast and high-definition dual-modal ultrasound and photoacoustic imaging in live animals and humans. Both modalities reach an imaging depth of > 15 mm, with depth-to-resolution ratios exceeding 500 and 370, respectively. This development sets a new standard for TUTs, advancing the possibilities of sensor fusion.

Single-shot digital optical fluorescence phase conjugation through forward multiple-scattering samples

Aberrations and multiple scattering in biological tissues critically distort light beams into highly complex speckle patterns. In this regard, digital optical phase conjugation (DOPC) is a promising technique enabling in-depth focusing. However, DOPC becomes challenging when using fluorescent guide stars for four main reasons: the low photon budget available, the large spectral bandwidth of the fluorescent signal, the Stokes shift between the emission and the excitation wavelength, and the absence of reference beam preventing holographic measurement. Here, we demonstrate the possibility to focus a laser beam through multiple-scattering samples by measuring speckle fields in a single acquisition step with a reference-free, high-resolution wavefront sensor. By taking advantage of the large spectral bandwidth of forward multiply scattering samples, digital fluorescence phase conjugation is achieved to focus a laser beam at the excitation wavelength while measuring the broadband speckle field arising from a micrometer-sized fluorescent bead.

Performance enhancement in wavefront shaping of multiply scattered light: a review

Significance

In nonballistic regime, optical scattering impedes high-resolution imaging through/inside complex media, such as milky liquid, fog, multimode fiber, and biological tissues, where confocal and multiphoton modalities fail. The significant tissue inhomogeneity-induced distortions need to be overcome and a technique referred as optical wavefront shaping (WFS), first proposed in 2007, has been becoming a promising solution, allowing for flexible and powerful light control. Understanding the principle and development of WFS may inspire exciting innovations for effective optical manipulation, imaging, stimulation, and therapy at depths in tissue or tissue-like complex media.

Aim

We aim to provide insights about what limits the WFS towards biomedical applications, and how recent efforts advance the performance of WFS among different trade-offs.

Approach

By differentiating the two implementation directions in the field, i.e., precompensation WFS and optical phase conjugation (OPC), improvement strategies are summarized and discussed.

Results

For biomedical applications, improving the speed of WFS is most essential in both directions, and a system-compatible wavefront modulator driven by fast apparatus is desired. In addition to that, algorithm efficiency and adaptability to perturbations/noise is of concern in precompensation WFS, while for OPC significant improvements rely heavily on integrating physical mechanisms and delicate system design for faster response and higher energy gain.

Conclusions

Substantial improvements in WFS implementations, from the aspects of physics, engineering, and computing, have inspired many novel and exciting optical applications that used to be optically inaccessible. It is envisioned that continuous efforts in the field can further advance WFS towards biomedical applications and guide our vision into deep biological tissues.

Wavefront shaping improves the transparency of the scattering media: a review

Significance

Wavefront shaping (WFS) can compensate for distortions by optimizing the wavefront of the input light or reversing the transmission matrix of the media. It is a promising field of research. A thorough understanding of principles and developments of WFS is important for optical research.

Aim

To provide insight into WFS for researchers who deal with scattering in biomedicine, imaging, and optical communication, our study summarizes the basic principles and methods of WFS and reviews recent progress.

Approach

The basic principles, methods of WFS, and the latest applications of WFS in focusing, imaging, and multimode fiber (MMF) endoscopy are described. The practical challenges and prospects of future development are also discussed.

Results

Data-driven learning-based methods are opening up new possibilities for WFS. High-resolution imaging through MMFs can support small-diameter endoscopy in the future.

Conclusion

The rapid development of WFS over the past decade has shown that the best solution is not to avoid scattering but to find ways to correct it or even use it. WFS with faster speed, more optical modes, and more modulation degrees of freedom will continue to drive exciting developments in various fields.

Optical focusing inside scattering media with iterative time-reversed ultrasonically encoded near-infrared light

Focusing light inside scattering media is a long-sought goal in optics. Time-reversed ultrasonically encoded (TRUE) focusing, which combines the advantages of biological transparency of the ultrasound and the high efficiency of digital optical phase conjugation (DOPC) based wavefront shaping, has been proposed to tackle this problem. By invoking repeated acousto-optic interactions, iterative TRUE (iTRUE) focusing can further break the resolution barrier imposed by the acoustic diffraction limit, showing great potential for deep-tissue biomedical applications. However, stringent requirements on system alignment prohibit the practical use of iTRUE focusing, especially for biomedical applications at the near-infrared spectral window. In this work, we fill this blank by developing an alignment protocol that is suitable for iTRUE focusing with a near-infrared light source. This protocol mainly contains three steps, including rough alignment with manual adjustment, fine-tuning with a high-precision motorized stage, and digital compensation through Zernike polynomials. Using this protocol, an optical focus with a peak-to-background ratio (PBR) of up to 70% of the theoretical value can be achieved. By using a 5-MHz ultrasonic transducer, we demonstrated the first iTRUE focusing using near-infrared light at 1053 nm, enabling the formation of an optical focus inside a scattering medium composed of stacked scattering films and a mirror. Quantitatively, the size of the focus decreased from roughly 1 mm to 160 µm within a few consecutive iterations and a PBR up to 70 was finally achieved. We anticipate that the capability of focusing near-infrared light inside scattering media, along with the reported alignment protocol, can be beneficial to a variety of applications in biomedical optics.

Wavefront shaping: A versatile tool to conquer multiple scattering in multidisciplinary fields

Optical techniques offer a wide variety of applications as light-matter interactions provide extremely sensitive mechanisms to probe or treat target media. Most of these implementations rely on the usage of ballistic or quasi-ballistic photons to achieve high spatial resolution. However, the inherent scattering nature of light in biological tissues or tissue-like scattering media constitutes a critical obstacle that has restricted the penetration depth of non-scattered photons and hence limited the implementation of most optical techniques for wider applications. In addition, the components of an optical system are usually designed and manufactured for a fixed function or performance. Recent advances in wavefront shaping have demonstrated that scattering- or component-induced phase distortions can be compensated by optimizing the wavefront of the input light pattern through iteration or by conjugating the transmission matrix of the scattering medium. This offers unprecedented opportunities in many applications to achieve controllable optical delivery or detection at depths or dynamically configurable functionalities by using scattering media to substitute conventional optical components. In this article, the recent progress of wavefront shaping in multidisciplinary fields is reviewed, from optical focusing and imaging with scattering media, functionalized devices, modulation of mode coupling, and nonlinearity in multimode fiber to multimode fiber-based applications. Apart from insights into the underlying principles and recent advances in wavefront shaping implementations, practical limitations and roadmap for future development are discussed in depth. Looking back and looking forward, it is believed that wavefront shaping holds a bright future that will open new avenues for noninvasive or minimally invasive optical interactions and arbitrary control inside deep tissues. The high degree of freedom with multiple scattering will also provide unprecedented opportunities to develop novel optical devices based on a single scattering medium (generic or customized) that can outperform traditional optical components.

Light-field focusing and modulation through scattering media based on dual-polarization-encoded digital optical phase conjugation

Digital optical phase conjugation (DOPC) can be applied for light-field focusing and imaging through or within scattering media. Traditional DOPC only recovers the phase but loses the polarization information of the original incident beam. In this Letter, we propose a dual-polarization-encoded DOPC to recover the full information (both phase and polarization) of the incident beam. The phase distributions of two orthogonal polarization components of the speckle field coming from a multimode fiber are first measured by using digital holography. Then, the phase distributions are separately modulated on two beams and their conjugations are superposed to recover the incident beam through the fiber. By changing the phase difference or amplitude ratio between the two conjugate beams, light fields with complex polarization distribution can also be generated. This method will broaden the application scope of DOPC in imaging through scattering media.

Ultrasound-Responsive Systems as Components for Smart Materials

Smart materials can respond to stimuli and adapt their responses based on external cues from their environments. Such behavior requires a way to transport energy efficiently and then convert it for use in applications such as actuation, sensing, or signaling. Ultrasound can carry energy safely and with low losses through complex and opaque media. It can be localized to small regions of space and couple to systems over a wide range of time scales. However, the same characteristics that allow ultrasound to propagate efficiently through materials make it difficult to convert acoustic energy into other useful forms. Recent work across diverse fields has begun to address this challenge, demonstrating ultrasonic effects that provide control over physical and chemical systems with surprisingly high specificity. Here, we review recent progress in ultrasound-matter interactions, focusing on effects that can be incorporated as components in smart materials. These techniques build on fundamental phenomena such as cavitation, microstreaming, scattering, and acoustic radiation forces to enable capabilities such as actuation, sensing, payload delivery, and the initiation of chemical or biological processes. The diversity of emerging techniques holds great promise for a wide range of smart capabilities supported by ultrasound and poses interesting questions for further investigations.

Modeling of iterative time-reversed ultrasonically encoded optical focusing in a reflection mode

Time-reversed ultrasonically-encoded (TRUE) optical focusing is a promising technique to realize deep-tissue optical focusing by employing ultrasonic guide stars. However, the sizes of the ultrasound-induced optical focus are determined by the wavelengths of the ultrasound, which are typically tens of microns. To satisfy the need for high-resolution imaging and manipulation, iterative TRUE (iTRUE) was proposed to break this limit by triggering repeated interactions between light and ultrasound and compressing the optical focus. However, even for the best result reported to date, the resolutions along the ultrasound axial and lateral direction were merely improved by only 2-fold to 3-fold. This observation leads to doubt whether iTRUE can be effective in reducing the size of the optical focus. In this work, we address this issue by developing a physical model to investigate iTRUE in a reflection mode numerically. Our numerical results show that, under the influence of shot noises, iTRUE can reduce the optical focus to a single speckle within a finite number of iterations. This model also allows numerical investigations of iTRUE in detail. Quantitatively, based on the parameters set, we show that the optical focus can be reduced to a size of 1.6 µm and a peak-to-background ratio over 10⁴ can be realized. It is also shown that iTRUE cannot significantly advance the focusing depth. We anticipate that this work can serve as useful guidance for optimizing iTRUE system for future biomedical applications, including deep-tissue optical imaging, laser surgery, and optogenetics.

Focusing light into scattering media with ultrasound-induced field perturbation

Focusing light into scattering media, although challenging, is highly desirable in many realms. With the invention of time-reversed ultrasonically encoded (TRUE) optical focusing, acousto-optic modulation was demonstrated as a promising guidestar mechanism for achieving noninvasive and addressable optical focusing into scattering media. Here, we report a new ultrasound-assisted technique, ultrasound-induced field perturbation optical focusing, abbreviated as UFP. Unlike in conventional TRUE optical focusing, where only the weak frequency-shifted first-order diffracted photons due to acousto-optic modulation are useful, here UFP leverages the brighter zeroth-order photons diffracted by an ultrasonic guidestar as information carriers to guide optical focusing. We find that the zeroth-order diffracted photons, although not frequency-shifted, do have a field perturbation caused by the existence of the ultrasonic guidestar. By detecting and time-reversing the differential field of the frequency-unshifted photons when the ultrasound is alternately ON and OFF, we can focus light to the position where the field perturbation occurs inside the scattering medium. We demonstrate here that UFP optical focusing has superior performance to conventional TRUE optical focusing, which benefits from the more intense zeroth-order photons. We further show that UFP optical focusing can be easily and flexibly developed into double-shot realization or even single-shot realization, which is desirable for high-speed wavefront shaping. This new method upsets conventional thinking on the utility of an ultrasonic guidestar and broadens the horizon of light control in scattering media. We hope that it provides a more efficient and flexible mechanism for implementing ultrasound-guided wavefront shaping.

Genetic-algorithm-assisted coherent enhancement absorption in scattering media by exploiting transmission and reflection matrices

The investigations on coherent enhancement absorption (CEA) inside scattering media are critically important in biophotonics. CEA can deliver light to the targeted position, thus enabling deep-tissue optical imaging by improving signal strength and imaging resolution. In this work, we develop a numerical framework that employs the method of finite-difference time-domain. Both the transmission and reflection matrices of scattering media with open boundaries are constructed, allowing the studies on the eigenvalues and eigenchannels. To realize CEA for scattering media with local absorption, we develop a genetic-algorithm-assisted numerical model. By minimizing the total transmittance and reflectance simultaneously, different realizations of CEA are observed and, without setting internal monitors, can be differentiated with cases of light leaked from sides. By modulating the incident wavefront at only one side of the scattering medium, it is shown that for a 5-μm-diameter absorber buried inside a scattering medium of 15 μm × 12 μm, more than half of the incident light can be delivered and absorbed at the target position. The enhancement in absorption is more than four times higher than that with random input. This value can be even higher for smaller absorption regions. We also quantify the effectiveness of the method and show that it is inversely proportional to the openness of the scattering medium. This result is potentially useful for targeted light delivery inside scattering media with local absorption.

Single-shot time-reversed optical focusing into and through scattering media

Optical time reversal can focus light through or into scattering media, which raises a new possibility for conquering optical diffusion. Because optical time reversal must be completed within the correlation time of speckles, enhancing the speed of time-reversed optical focusing is important for practical applications. Although employing faster digital devices for time-reversal helps, more efficient methodologies are also desired. Here, we report a single-shot time-reversed optical focusing method to minimize the wavefront measurement time. In our approach, all information requisite for optical time reversal is extracted from a single-shot hologram, and hence no other preconditions or measurements are required. In particular, we demonstrate the first realization of single-shot time-reversed ultrasonically encoded (TRUE) optical focusing into scattering media. By using the minimum amount of measurement, this work breaks the fundamental speed limit of digitally based time reversal for focusing into and through scattering media, and constitutes an important step toward high-speed wavefront shaping applications.

Improvement of light penetration in biological tissue using an ultrasound-induced heating tunnel

The major obstacles of optical imaging and photothermal therapy in biomedical applications is the strong scattering of light within biological tissues resulting in light defocusing and limited penetration. In this study, we propose high intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU)-induced heating tunnel to reduce the photon scattering. To verify our idea, Monte Carlo simulation and intralipid-phantom experiments were conducted. The results show that the thermal effect created by HIFU could improve the light fluence at the targeted region by 3% in both simulation and phantom experiments. Owing to the fluence increase, similar results can also be found in the photoacoustic experiments. In conclusion, our proposed method shows a noninvasive way to increase the light delivery efficiency in turbid medium. It is expected that our finding has a potential for improving the focal light delivery in photoacoustic imaging and photothermal therapy.

Retrieving the optical transmission matrix of a multimode fiber using the extended Kalman filter

Characterizing the transmission matrix (TM) of a multimode fiber (MMF) benefits many fiber-based applications and allows in-depth studies on the physical properties. For example, by modulating the incident field, the knowledge of the TM allows one to synthesize any optical field at the distill end of the MMF. However, the extraction of optical fields usually requires holographic measurements with interferometry, which complicates the system design and introduces additional noise. In this work, we developed an efficient method to retrieve the TM of the MMF in a referenceless optical system. With pure intensity measurements, this method uses the extended Kalman filter (EKF) to recursively search for the optimum solution. To facilitate the computational process, a modified speckle-correlation scatter matrix (MSSM) is constructed as a low-fidelity initial estimation. This method, termed EKF-MSSM, only requires 4N intensity measurements to precisely solve for N unknown complex variables in the TM. Experimentally, we successfully retrieved the TM of the MMF with high precision, which allows optical focusing with the enhancement (>70%) close to the theoretical value. We anticipate that this method will serve as a useful tool for studying physical properties of the MMFs and potentially open new possibilities in a variety of applications in fiber optics.

Sub-acoustic resolution optical focusing through scattering using photoacoustic fluctuation guided wavefront shaping

Focusing light through turbid media using wavefront shaping generally requires a noninvasive guide star to provide feedback on the focusing process. Here we report a photoacoustic guide star mechanism suitable for wavefront shaping through a scattering wall that is based on the fluctuations in the photoacoustic signals generated in a micro-vessel filled with flowing absorbers. The standard deviation of photoacoustic signals generated from random distributions of particles is dependent on the illumination volume and increases nonlinearly as the illumination volume is decreased. We harness this effect to guide wavefront shaping using the standard deviation of the photoacoustic response as the feedback signal. We further demonstrate sub-acoustic resolution optical focusing through a diffuser with a genetic algorithm optimization routine.

Fighting against fast speckle decorrelation for light focusing inside live tissue by photon frequency shifting

Focusing light inside live tissue by digital optical phase conjugation (DOPC) has been intensively investigated due to its potential biomedical applications in deep-tissue imaging, optogenetics, microsurgery, and phototherapy. However, fast physiological motions in a live animal, such as blood flow and respiratory motions, produce undesired photon perturbation and thus inevitably deteriorate the performance of light focusing. Here, we develop a photon-frequency-shifting DOPC method to fight against fast physiological motions by switching the states of a guide star at a distinctive frequency. Therefore, the photons tagged by the guide star are well detected at the specific frequency, separating them from the photons perturbed by fast motions. Light focusing was demonstrated in both phantoms in vitro and mice in vivo with substantially improved focusing contrast. This work puts a new perspective on light focusing inside live tissue and promises wide biomedical applications.

Implementation of an Off-Axis Digital Optical Phase Conjugation System for Turbidity Suppression on Scattering Medium

Due to the light scattering effect, it is difficult to directly achieve optical focusing and imaging in turbid media, such as milk and biological tissue. The turbidity suppression of a scattering medium and control of light through the scattering medium are important for imaging on biological tissue or biophotonics. Optical phase conjugation is a novel technology on turbidity suppression by directly creating phase conjugation light waves to form time-reversed light. In this work, we report a digital optical phase conjugation system based on off-axis holography. Compared with traditional digital optical phase conjugation methods, the off-axis holography acquires the conjugation phase using only one interference image, obviously saving photo acquisition time. Furthermore, we tested the optical phase conjugate reduction performance of this system and also achieved optical focusing through the diffuser. We also proved that the reversing of random scattering in turbid media is achievable by phase conjugation.

Focusing light inside live tissue using reversibly switchable bacterial phytochrome as a genetically encoded photochromic guide star

Focusing light deep by engineering wavefronts toward guide stars inside scattering media has potential biomedical applications in imaging, manipulation, stimulation, and therapy. However, the lack of endogenous guide stars in biological tissue hinders its translations to in vivo applications. Here, we use a reversibly switchable bacterial phytochrome protein as a genetically encoded photochromic guide star (GePGS) in living tissue to tag photons at targeted locations, achieving light focusing inside the tissue by wavefront shaping. As bacterial phytochrome-based GePGS absorbs light differently upon far-red and near-infrared illumination, a large dynamic absorption contrast can be created to tag photons inside tissue. By modulating the GePGS at a distinctive frequency, we suppressed the competition between GePGS and tissue motions and formed tight foci inside mouse tumors in vivo and acute mouse brain tissue, thus improving light delivery efficiency and specificity. Spectral multiplexing of GePGS proteins with different colors is an attractive possibility.

Photoacoustic Wavefront Shaping with High Signal to Noise Ratio for Light Focusing Through Scattering Media

Noninvasive light focusing and imaging through a scattering medium can be achieved by wavefront shaping using the photoacoustic signal as feedback. Unfortunately, the signal to noise ratio (SNR) of the traditional photoacoustic method is very low, which limits the wavefront shaping focusing speed and intensity. In this paper, we propose a completely new photoacoustic-signal-extraction method which combines wavelet denoising and correlation detection. With this method, the SNR of the photoacoustic signal reaches 25.2, 6.5 times higher than that of the unprocessed photoacoustic signal. Moreover, we achieve the simultaneous multipoint focusing, which is crucial for improving the speed of scanning imaging. The superior performance of the proposed method was experimentally demonstrated in extracting and denoising the photoacoustic signals deeply buried in noise, one critical step in in vivo photoacoustic imaging.

Controlling 1550-nm light through a multimode fiber using a Hadamard encoding algorithm

To meet the demand for higher capacity fiber-optic communication, multimode fibers have gradually attracted attention, but they introduce spatial distortions. To overcome this limitation, wavefront shaping technology promises to control scattered light after it is transmitted through multimode fibers. In this work, we introduce a Hadamard encoding algorithm (HEA) to control 1550-nm light that has passed through a multimode fiber. A series of Hadamard bases is iteratively added to the current optimum phase map, and the coefficient of each order is determined through a simple four-step phase-shifting mechanism. Using a laser source at 1550-nm wavelength, we experimentally achieved an optical focus through a 2-meter-long multimode fiber. With 1024 orders, the experimental enhancement reached 690, which is 86% of the theoretical value. As far as we know, this is the best result ever reported in focusing 1550-nm light through a multimode fiber. Moreover, we note that the HEA can also be used to reduce the intensity of the targeted light, suggesting broad applications in glare suppression. These results demonstrate superior performance in controlling targeted light transport through a multimode fiber at a telecommunication wavelength. We anticipate that this work will open new possibilities in a variety of applications in fiber optics.

Quantum reference beacon–guided superresolution optical focusing in complex media

Optical scattering is generally considered to be a nuisance of microscopy that limits imaging depth and spatial resolution. Wavefront shaping techniques enable optical imaging at unprecedented depth, but attaining superresolution within complex media remains a challenge. We used a quantum reference beacon (QRB), consisting of solid-state quantum emitters with spin-dependent fluorescence, to provide subwavelength guidestar feedback for wavefront shaping to achieve a superresolution optical focus. We implemented the QRB-guided imaging with nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond nanocrystals, which enable optical focusing with a subdiffraction resolution below 186 nanometers (less than half the wavelength). QRB-assisted wavefront-shaping should find use in a range of applications, including deep-tissue quantum enhanced sensing and individual optical excitation of magnetically coupled spin ensembles for applications in quantum information processing.

High-speed alignment optimization of digital optical phase conjugation systems based on autocovariance analysis in conjunction with orthonormal rectangular polynomials

Digital optical phase conjugation (DOPC) enables many optical applications by permitting focusing of light through scattering media. However, DOPC systems require precise alignment of all optical components, particularly of the spatial light modulator (SLM) and camera, in order to accurately record the wavefront and perform playback through the use of time-reversal symmetry. We present a digital compensation technique to optimize the alignment of the SLM in five degrees of freedom, permitting focusing through thick scattering media with a thickness of 5 mm and transport scattering coefficient of 2.5  mm  -  1 while simultaneously improving focal quality, as quantified by the peak-to-background ratio, by several orders of magnitude over an unoptimized alignment.

The State of the NIH BRAIN Initiative

The BRAIN Initiative arose from a grand challenge to "accelerate the development and application of new technologies that will enable researchers to produce dynamic pictures of the brain that show how individual brain cells and complex neural circuits interact at the speed of thought." The BRAIN Initiative is a public-private effort focused on the development and use of powerful tools for acquiring fundamental insights about how information processing occurs in the central nervous system (CNS). As the Initiative enters its fifth year, NIH has supported >500 principal investigators, who have answered the Initiative's challenge via hundreds of publications describing novel tools, methods, and discoveries that address the Initiative's seven scientific priorities. We describe scientific advances produced by individual laboratories, multi-investigator teams, and entire consortia that, over the coming decades, will produce more comprehensive and dynamic maps of the brain, deepen our understanding of how circuit activity can produce a rich tapestry of behaviors, and lay the foundation for understanding how its circuitry is disrupted in brain disorders. Much more work remains to bring this vision to fruition, and the National Institutes of Health continues to look to the diverse scientific community, from mathematics, to physics, chemistry, engineering, neuroethics, and neuroscience, to ensure that the greatest scientific benefit arises from this unique research Initiative.

Time-reversed magnetically controlled perturbation (TRMCP) optical focusing inside scattering media

Manipulating and focusing light deep inside biological tissue and tissue-like complex media has been desired for long yet considered challenging. One feasible strategy is through optical wavefront engineering, where the optical scattering-induced phase distortions are time reversed or pre-compensated so that photons travel along different optical paths interfere constructively at the targeted position within a scattering medium. To define the targeted position, an internal guidestar is needed to guide or provide a feedback for wavefront engineering. It could be injected or embedded probes such as fluorescence or nonlinear microspheres, ultrasonic modulation, as well as absorption perturbation. Here we propose to use a magnetically controlled optical absorbing microsphere as the internal guidestar. Using a digital optical phase conjugation system, we obtained sharp optical focusing within scattering media through time-reversing the scattered light perturbed by the magnetic microsphere. Since the object is magnetically controlled, dynamic optical focusing is allowed with a relatively large field-of-view by scanning the magnetic field externally. Moreover, the magnetic microsphere can be packaged with an organic membrane, using biological or chemical means to serve as a carrier. Therefore, the technique may find particular applications for enhanced targeted drug delivery, and imaging and photoablation of angiogenic vessels in tumours.

Dopaminergic dysfunction in neurodevelopmental disorders: recent advances and synergistic technologies to aid basic research

Neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs) represent a diverse group of syndromes characterized by abnormal development of the central nervous system and whose symptomatology includes cognitive, emotional, sensory, and motor impairments. The identification of causative genetic defects has allowed for creation of transgenic NDD mouse models that have revealed pathophysiological mechanisms of disease phenotypes in a neural circuit- and cell type-specific manner. Mouse models of several syndromes, including Rett syndrome, Fragile X syndrome, Angelman syndrome, Neurofibromatosis type 1, etc., exhibit abnormalities in the structure and function of dopaminergic circuitry, which regulates motivation, motor behavior, sociability, attention, and executive function. Recent advances in technologies for functional circuit mapping, including tissue clearing, viral vector-based tracing methods, and optical readouts of neural activity, have refined our knowledge of dopaminergic circuits in unperturbed states, yet these tools have not been widely applied to NDD research. Here, we will review recent findings exploring dopaminergic function in NDD models and discuss the promise of new tools to probe NDD pathophysiology in these circuits.

Wavefront Shaping and Its Application to Enhance Photoacoustic Imaging

Since its introduction to the field in mid-1990s, photoacoustic imaging has become a fast-developing biomedical imaging modality with many promising potentials. By converting absorbed diffused light energy into not-so-diffused ultrasonic waves, the reconstruction of the ultrasonic waves from the targeted area in photoacoustic imaging leads to a high-contrast sensing of optical absorption with ultrasonic resolution in deep tissue, overcoming the optical diffusion limit from the signal detection perspective. The generation of photoacoustic signals, however, is still throttled by the attenuation of photon flux due to the strong diffusion effect of light in tissue. Recently, optical wavefront shaping has demonstrated that multiply scattered light could be manipulated so as to refocus inside a complex medium, opening up new hope to tackle the fundamental limitation. In this paper, the principle and recent development of photoacoustic imaging and optical wavefront shaping are briefly introduced. Then we describe how photoacoustic signals can be used as a guide star for in-tissue optical focusing, and how such focusing can be exploited for further enhancing photoacoustic imaging in terms of sensitivity and penetration depth. Finally, the existing challenges and further directions towards in vivo applications are discussed.

Deep tissue optical focusing and optogenetic modulation with time-reversed ultrasonically encoded light

Noninvasive light focusing deep inside living biological tissue has long been a goal in biomedical optics. However, the optical scattering of biological tissue prevents conventional optical systems from tightly focusing visible light beyond several hundred micrometers. The recently developed wavefront shaping technique time-reversed ultrasonically encoded (TRUE) focusing enables noninvasive light delivery to targeted locations beyond the optical diffusion limit. However, until now, TRUE focusing has only been demonstrated inside nonliving tissue samples. We present the first example of TRUE focusing in 2-mm-thick living brain tissue and demonstrate its application for optogenetic modulation of neural activity in 800-μm-thick acute mouse brain slices at a wavelength of 532 nm. We found that TRUE focusing enabled precise control of neuron firing and increased the spatial resolution of neuronal excitation fourfold when compared to conventional lens focusing. This work is an important step in the application of TRUE focusing for practical biomedical uses.

High-speed single-shot optical focusing through dynamic scattering media with full-phase wavefront shaping

In biological applications, optical focusing is limited by the diffusion of light, which prevents focusing at depths greater than ∼1 mm in soft tissue. Wavefront shaping extends the depth by compensating for phase distortions induced by scattering and thus allows for focusing light through biological tissue beyond the optical diffusion limit by using constructive interference. However, due to physiological motion, light scattering in tissue is deterministic only within a brief speckle correlation time. In in vivo tissue, this speckle correlation time is on the order of milliseconds, and so the wavefront must be optimized within this brief period. The speed of digital wavefront shaping has typically been limited by the relatively long time required to measure and display the optimal phase pattern. This limitation stems from the low speeds of cameras, data transfer and processing, and spatial light modulators. While binary-phase modulation requiring only two images for the phase measurement has recently been reported, most techniques require at least three frames for the full-phase measurement. Here, we present a full-phase digital optical phase conjugation method based on off-axis holography for single-shot optical focusing through scattering media. By using off-axis holography in conjunction with graphics processing unit based processing, we take advantage of the single-shot full-phase measurement while using parallel computation to quickly reconstruct the phase map. With this system, we can focus light through scattering media with a system latency of approximately 9 ms, on the order of the in vivo speckle correlation time.

High-speed single-shot optical focusing through dynamic scattering media with full-phase wavefront shaping

In biological applications, optical focusing is limited by the diffusion of light, which prevents focusing at depths greater than ∼1 mm in soft tissue. Wavefront shaping extends the depth by compensating for phase distortions induced by scattering and thus allows for focusing light through biological tissue beyond the optical diffusion limit by using constructive interference. However, due to physiological motion, light scattering in tissue is deterministic only within a brief speckle correlation time. In in vivo tissue, this speckle correlation time is on the order of milliseconds, and so the wavefront must be optimized within this brief period. The speed of digital wavefront shaping has typically been limited by the relatively long time required to measure and display the optimal phase pattern. This limitation stems from the low speeds of cameras, data transfer and processing, and spatial light modulators. While binary-phase modulation requiring only two images for the phase measurement has recently been reported, most techniques require at least three frames for the full-phase measurement. Here, we present a full-phase digital optical phase conjugation method based on off-axis holography for single-shot optical focusing through scattering media. By using off-axis holography in conjunction with graphics processing unit based processing, we take advantage of the single-shot full-phase measurement while using parallel computation to quickly reconstruct the phase map. With this system, we can focus light through scattering media with a system latency of approximately 9 ms, on the order of the in vivo speckle correlation time.

Increased light penetration due to ultrasound-induced air bubbles in optical scattering media

Light is an attractive tool for high spatial- and contrast-resolution imaging, highly sensitive molecular imaging, and target-selective therapy, and it does not exhibit the risks associated with ionizing radiation. The main limitation of using light in clinical applications is its superficial imaging and therapeutic depth caused by high optical scattering in biological media. Here, we demonstrate that the scattering and thus defocusing of the incident light can be alleviated when simultaneously delivered ultrasound generates air bubbles in the pathway of the incident light, thus increasing the light penetration. The bubbles are temporally induced by ultrasound with an intensity that is sufficiently low to avoid tissue damage and act as a Mie scattering medium in which light is scattered predominantly in the forward direction. The change in the optical scattering property caused by the ultrasound is undone after cessation of the insonification. From the results, it is expected that this proposed method will open a new route for overcoming the limitations of current optical imaging and therapeutic techniques.

Focusing light inside scattering media with magnetic-particle-guided wavefront shaping

Optical scattering has traditionally limited the ability to focus light inside scattering media such as biological tissue. Recently developed wavefront shaping techniques promise to overcome this limit by tailoring an optical wavefront to constructively interfere at a target location deep inside scattering media. To find such a wavefront solution, a "guide-star" mechanism is required to identify the target location. However, developing guidestars of practical usefulness is challenging, especially in biological tissue, which hinders the translation of wavefront shaping techniques. Here, we demonstrate a guidestar mechanism that relies on magnetic modulation of small particles. This guidestar method features an optical modulation efficiency of 29% and enables micrometer-scale focusing inside biological tissue with a peak intensity-to-background ratio (PBR) of 140; both numbers are one order of magnitude higher than those achieved with the ultrasound guidestar, a popular guidestar method. We also demonstrate that light can be focused on cells labeled with magnetic particles, and to different target locations by magnetically controlling the position of a particle. Since magnetic fields have a large penetration depth even through bone structures like the skull, this optical focusing method holds great promise for deep-tissue applications such as optogenetic modulation of neurons, targeted light-based therapy, and imaging.

Raman Plus X: Biomedical Applications of Multimodal Raman Spectroscopy

Raman spectroscopy is a label-free method of obtaining detailed chemical information about samples. Its compatibility with living tissue makes it an attractive choice for biomedical analysis, yet its translation from a research tool to a clinical tool has been slow, hampered by fundamental Raman scattering issues such as long integration times and limited penetration depth. In this review we detail the how combining Raman spectroscopy with other techniques yields multimodal instruments that can help to surmount the translational barriers faced by Raman alone. We review Raman combined with several optical and non-optical methods, including fluorescence, elastic scattering, OCT, phase imaging, and mass spectrometry. In each section we highlight the power of each combination along with a brief history and presentation of representative results. Finally, we conclude with a perspective detailing both benefits and challenges for multimodal Raman measurements, and give thoughts on future directions in the field.

Optical Phase Conjugation with Less Than a Photon per Degree of Freedom

We demonstrate experimentally that optical phase conjugation can be used to focus light through strongly scattering media even when far less than a photon per optical degree of freedom is detected. We found that the best achievable intensity contrast is equal to the total number of detected photons, as long as the resolution of the system is high enough. Our results demonstrate that phase conjugation can be used even when the photon budget is extremely low, such as in high-speed focusing through dynamic media or imaging deep inside tissue.

Focusing light inside dynamic scattering media with millisecond digital optical phase conjugation

Wavefront shaping based on digital optical phase conjugation (DOPC) focuses light through or inside scattering media, but the low speed of DOPC prevents it from being applied to thick, living biological tissue. Although a fast DOPC approach was recently developed, the reported single-shot wavefront measurement method does not work when the goal is to focus light inside, instead of through, highly scattering media. Here, using a ferroelectric liquid crystal based spatial light modulator, we develop a simpler but faster DOPC system that focuses light not only through, but also inside scattering media. By controlling 2.6 × 105 optical degrees of freedom, our system focused light through 3 mm thick moving chicken tissue, with a system latency of 3.0 ms. Using ultrasound-guided DOPC, along with a binary wavefront measurement method, our system focused light inside a scattering medium comprising moving tissue with a latency of 6.0 ms, which is one to two orders of magnitude shorter than those of previous digital wavefront shaping systems. Since the demonstrated speed approaches tissue decorrelation rates, this work is an important step toward in vivo deep-tissue non-invasive optical imaging, manipulation, and therapy.

Sub-Nyquist sampling boosts targeted light transport through opaque scattering media

Optical time-reversal techniques are being actively developed to focus light through or inside opaque scattering media. When applied to biological tissue, these techniques promise to revolutionize biophotonics by enabling deep-tissue non-invasive optical imaging, optogenetics, optical tweezing, and phototherapy. In all previous optical time-reversal experiments, the scattered light field was well-sampled during wavefront measurement and wavefront reconstruction, following the Nyquist sampling criterion. Here, we overturn this conventional practice by demonstrating that even when the scattered field is under-sampled, light can still be focused through or inside scattering media. Even more surprisingly, we show both theoretically and experimentally that the focus achieved by under-sampling can be one order of magnitude brighter than that achieved under the well-sampling conditions used in previous works, where 3×3 to 5×5 pixels were used to sample one speckle grain on average. Moreover, sub-Nyquist sampling improves the signal-to-noise ratio and the collection efficiency of the scattered light. We anticipate that this newly explored under-sampling scheme will transform the understanding of optical time reversal and boost the performance of optical imaging, manipulation, and communication through opaque scattering media.

Focusing light through biological tissue and tissue-mimicking phantoms up to 9.6 cm in thickness with digital optical phase conjugation

Optical phase conjugation (OPC)-based wavefront shaping techniques focus light through or within scattering media, which is critically important for deep-tissue optical imaging, manipulation, and therapy. However, to date, the sample thickness in OPC experiments has been limited to only a few millimeters. Here, by using a laser with a long coherence length and an optimized digital OPC system that can safely deliver more light power, we focused 532-nm light through tissue-mimicking phantoms up to 9.6 cm thick, as well as through ex vivo chicken breast tissue up to 2.5 cm thick. Our results demonstrate that OPC can be achieved even when photons have experienced on average 1000 scattering events. The demonstrated penetration of nearly 10 cm (∼100 transport mean free paths) has never been achieved before by any optical focusing technique, and it shows the promise of OPC for deep-tissue noninvasive optical imaging, manipulation, and therapy.