Theoretical and experimental study of spectral characteristics of the photoacoustic signal from stochastically distributed particles

Photoacoustic imaging is an emerging technique which inherits the merits of optical imaging and ultrasonic imaging. However, classical photoacoustic imaging mainly makes use of the time-domain parameters of signals. In contrast to previous studies, we theoretically investigate the spectral characteristics of the photoacoustic signal from stochastic distributed particles. The spectral slope is extracted and used for describing the spectral characteristics of the photoacoustic signal. Both Gaussian and spherical distributions of optical absorption in particles are considered. For both situations, the spectral slope is monotonically decreased with the increase of particle size. In addition, the quantitative relationship between the spectral slope and the imaging system factors, including the laser pulse envelope, directivity of ultrasound transducer, and signal bandwidth, are theoretically analyzed. Finally, an idealized phantom experiment is performed to validate the analyses and examine the instrument independent of the spectral slope. This work provides a theoretical framework and new experimental evidence for spectrum analysis of the photoacoustic signal. This could be helpful for quantitative tissue evaluation and imaging based on the spectral parameters of the photoacoustic signal.