%0 Generic
%A Mosse, CA
%A Colchester, RJ
%A Bhachu, DS
%A Zhang, EZ
%A Papakonstantinou, I
%A Desjardins, AE
%C San Francisco, CA, United States
%D 2014
%E Oraevsky, AA
%E Wang, LV
%F discovery:1419130
%I SPIE
%K Science & Technology, Physical Sciences, Life Sciences & Biomedicine, Optics, Radiology, Nuclear Medicine & Medical Imaging, Laser-generated ultrasound, photoacoustic, optical fiber, carbon nanotubes, PDMS, FILM
%P 89430P-1
%T Fiber-optic Ultrasound Transducers with Carbon/PDMS Composite Coatings
%U https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1419130/
%V 8943
%X Novel ultrasound transducers were created with a composite of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) that was dip coated onto the end faces of optical fibers. The CNTs were functionalized with oleylamine to allow for their dissolution in xylene, a solvent of PDMS. Ultrasound pulses were generated by illuminating the composite coating with pulsed laser light. At distances of 2 to 16 mm from the end faces, ultrasound pressures ranged from 0.81 to 0.07 MPa and from 0.27 to 0.03 MPa with 105 and 200 μm core fibers, respectively. Using an optical fiber hydrophone positioned adjacent to the coated 200 µm core optical fiber, ultrasound reflectance measurements were obtained from the outer surface of a sheep heart ventricle. The results of this study suggest that ultrasound transducers that comprise optical fibers with CNT-PDMS composite coatings may be suitable for miniature medical imaging probes.
%Z This version is the version of record. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions.