Photoacoustic imaging of the excited state lifetime of fluorophores

Photoacoustic (PA) imaging using pump–probe excitation has been shown to allow the detection and visualization of fluorescent contrast agents. The technique relies upon inducing stimulated emission using pump and probe pulses at excitation wavelengths that correspond to the absorption and fluorescence spectra. By changing the time delay between the pulses, the excited state lifetime of the fluorophore is modulated to vary the amount of thermalized energy, and hence PA signal amplitude, to provide fluorophore-specific PA contrast. In this study, this approach was extended to the detection of differences in the excited state lifetime of fluorophores. PA waveforms were measured in solutions of a near-infrared fluorophore using simultaneous and time-delayed pump–probe excitation. The lifetime of the fluorophore solutions was varied by using different solvents and quencher concentrations. By calculating difference signals and by plotting their amplitude as a function of pump–probe time delay, a correlation with the excited state lifetime of the fluorophore was observed. The results agreed with the output of a forward model of the PA signal generation in fluorophores. The application of this method to tomographic PA imaging of differences in the excited state lifetime was demonstrated in tissue phantom experiments. (paper)