Chirp-Like Excitation for Pulse Compression in LED-Based Photoacoustic Imaging

Pulsed light source such as pulsed lasers are commonly used in photoacoustic imaging (PAI). While shorter pulse duration contributes to higher spatial and temporal resolution, it also results in higher peak optical power, which poses safety concerns in biomedical applications. This study proposes a novel approach that achieves linear frequency modulation (LFM)-like excitation via pulsed light sources. It can effectively decouple image resolution from pulse width, enabling the use of light sources with lower peak power, while still maintaining high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). An optoacoustic experiment with light-emitting diode (LED) was conducted to validate the feasibility and performance of this method.