Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Article
  • Published:

Imaging deep within a scattering medium using collective accumulation of single-scattered waves

Abstract

Optical microscopy suffers from a loss of resolving power when imaging targets are embedded in thick scattering media because of the dominance of strong multiple-scattered waves over waves scattered only a single time by the targets. Here, we present an approach that maintains full optical resolution when imaging deep within scattering media. We use both time-gated detection and spatial input–output correlation to identify those reflected waves that conserve in-plane momentum, which is a property of single-scattered waves. By implementing a superradiance-like collective accumulation of the single-scattered waves, we enhance the ratio of the single scattering signal to the multiple scattering background by more than three orders of magnitude. An imaging depth of 11.5 times the scattering mean free path is achieved with a near-diffraction-limited resolution of 1.5 μm. Our method of distinguishing single- from multiple-scattered waves will open new routes to deep-tissue imaging and studying the physics of the interaction of light with complex media.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Schematic diagram for the collective enhancement of single-scattered waves.
Figure 2: Experimental schematic diagram of the CASS microscope.
Figure 3: Demonstration of near diffraction-limited imaging in a thick scattering medium.
Figure 4: Performance of single-scattering enhancement depending on the number of incidence angles, Ntot.
Figure 5: CASS imaging of 2-μm-diameter beads embedded in thick rat brain tissue.
Figure 6: Measurement and construction of the time-gated reflection matrix.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Murphy, D. B. Fundamentals of Light Microscopy and Electronic Imaging (Wiley-Liss, 2001).

    Google Scholar 

  2. Duck, F. A. Physical Properties of Tissues: A Comprehensive Reference Book (Elsevier Science, 1990).

    Google Scholar 

  3. Hee, M. R. et al. Femtosecond transillumination optical coherence tomography. Opt. Lett. 18, 950–952 (1993).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  4. Niedre, M. J. et al. Early photon tomography allows fluorescence detection of lung carcinomas and disease progression in mice in vivo. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 105, 19126–19131 (2008).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  5. Anderson, G. E., Liu, F. & Alfano, R. R. Microscope imaging through highly scattering media. Opt. Lett. 19, 981–983 (1994).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  6. Huang, D. et al. Optical coherence tomography. Science 254, 1178–1181 (1991).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  7. Wu, J., Perelman, L., Dasari, R. R. & Feld, M. S. Fluorescence tomographic imaging in turbid media using early-arriving photons and Laplace transforms. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 94, 8783–8788 (1997).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  8. Wang, L. V. Prospects of photoacoustic tomography. Med. Phys. 35, 5758–5767 (2008).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Xu, X., Liu, H. & Wang, L. V. Time-reversed ultrasonically encoded optical focusing into scattering media. Nature Photon. 5, 154–157 (2011).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  10. Wang, L. V. & Hu, S. Photoacoustic tomography: in vivo imaging from organelles to organs. Science 335, 1458–1462 (2012).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  11. Judkewitz, B. et al. Speckle-scale focusing in the diffusive regime with time reversal of variance-encoded light (TROVE). Nature Photon. 7, 300–305 (2013).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  12. Suzuki, Y., Tay, J. W., Yang, Q. & Wang, L. V. Continuous scanning of a time-reversed ultrasonically encoded optical focus by reflection-mode digital phase conjugation. Opt. Lett. 39, 3441–3444 (2014).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  13. Durduran, T. et al. Diffuse optical measurement of blood flow, blood oxygenation, and metabolism in a human brain during sensorimotor cortex activation. Opt. Lett. 29, 1766–1768 (2004).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  14. Ntziachristos, V., Yodh, A. G., Schnall, M. & Chance, B. Concurrent MRI and diffuse optical tomography of breast after indocyanine green enhancement. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 97, 2767–2772 (2000).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  15. Yaqoob, Z., Psaltis, D., Feld, M. S. & Yang, C. Optical phase conjugation for turbidity suppression in biological samples. Nature Photon. 2, 110–115 (2008).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  16. Popoff, S. et al. Image transmission through an opaque material. Nature Commun. 1, 81 (2010).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  17. Choi, Y. et al. Overcoming the diffraction limit using multiple light scattering in a highly disordered medium. Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 023902 (2011).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  18. Bertolotti, J. et al. Non-invasive imaging through opaque scattering layers. Nature 491, 232–234 (2012).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  19. Katz, O., Small, E. & Silberberg, Y. Looking around corners and through thin turbid layers in real time with scattered incoherent light. Nature Photon. 6, 549–553 (2012).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  20. Katz, O., Heidmann, P., Fink, M. & Gigan, S. Non-invasive single-shot imaging through scattering layers and around corners via speckle correlations. Nature Photon. 8, 784–790 (2014).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  21. Theer, P., Hasan, M. T. & Denk, W. Two-photon imaging to a depth of 1000 μm in living brains by use of a Ti:Al2O3 regenerative amplifier. Opt. Lett. 28, 1022–1024 (2003).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  22. Horton, N. G. et al. In vivo three-photon microscopy of subcortical structures within an intact mouse brain. Nature Photon. 7, 205–209 (2013).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  23. Dicke, R. Coherence in spontaneous radiation processes. Phys. Rev. 93, 99 (1954).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  24. Aubry, A. & Derode, A. Random matrix theory applied to acoustic backscattering and imaging in complex media. Phys. Rev. Lett. 102, 084301 (2009).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  25. Choi, Y., Yang, T. D., Lee, K. J. & Choi, W. Full-field and single-shot quantitative phase microscopy using dynamic speckle illumination. Opt. Lett. 36, 2465–2467 (2011).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  26. Desjardins, A. E. et al. Angle-resolved optical coherence tomography with sequential angular selectivity for speckle reduction. Opt. Express 15, 6200–6209 (2007).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  27. Goodman, J. W. Statistical Optics (Wiley, 2000).

    Google Scholar 

  28. Sheng, P. Introduction to Wave Scattering, Localization, and Mesoscopic Phenomena 2nd edn (Springer, 2006).

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the IT R&D Program (R2013080003), the Global Frontier Program (2014M3A6B3063710), IBS-R023-D1-2015-a00, the Basic Science Research Program (2013R1A1A2062560) and the Nano-Material Technology Development Program (2011-0020205) through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Science, ICT & Future Planning. It was also supported by the Korea Health Technology R&D Project (HI14C0748) funded by the Ministry of Health & Welfare, Republic of Korea. The authors thank C. Fang-Yen for discussions.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Contributions

W.C., S.K. and S.J. conceived the experiment. S.K. and S.J. carried out the measurements and analysed the data with W.C. W.C.* and Q.P. performed the theoretical study and supported interpretation of the data. Y.L. assisted in the design of the optical set-up. H.K. prepared scattering layers. T.Y. prepared biological tissues. J.J. and J.L. provided gold-coated silica beads. S.K., S.J. and W.C. prepared the manuscript. All authors contributed to finalizing the manuscript. W.C. and W.C.* refer to Wonshik Choi and Wonjun Choi, respectively.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Wonshik Choi.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Supplementary information

Supplementary information

Supplementary information (PDF 3067 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Kang, S., Jeong, S., Choi, W. et al. Imaging deep within a scattering medium using collective accumulation of single-scattered waves. Nature Photon 9, 253–258 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2015.24

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2015.24

This article is cited by

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing