Nonlinear photoacoustic signal amplification from single targets in absorption background.

ABSTRACT: Photoacoustic (PA) detection of single absorbing targets such as nanoparticles or cells can be limited by absorption background. We show here that this problem can be overcome by using the nonlinear photoacoustics based on the differences in PA signal dependences on the laser energy from targets and background. Among different nonlinear phenomena, we focused on laser generation of nanobubbles as more efficient PA signal amplifiers from strongly absorbing, highly localized targets in the presence of spatially homogenous absorption background generating linear signals only. This approach was demonstrated by using nonlinear PA flow cytometry platform for label-free detection of circulating melanoma cells in blood background in vitro and in vivo. Nonlinearly amplified PA signals

SUBMITTER: Sarimollaoglu M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4048727 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature