Coherent ultrasound stimulated acoustic emission imaging

Ultrasound Stimulated Acoustic Emission (USAE) is an imaging method based on the acoustic field emitted from an object due to a highly localized oscillating force. The localized force is obtained by applying focused ultrasound field to the object. Properties of images produced from the magnitude of the acoustic emission field have been previously presented. Methods for coherent detection of the acoustic emission field and properties of the images containing the phase information are discussed here. It is shown that the phase images potentially can be used for tissue characterization.