3D depth-coded photoacoustic microscopy with a large field of view for human skin imaging

Photoacoustic (PA) microscopy comes with high potential for human skin imaging, since it allows noninvasively high-resolution imaging of the natural hemoglobin at depths of several millimeters. Here, we developed a PA microscopy to achieve high-resolution, high-contrast, and large field of view imaging of skin. A three-dimensional (3D) depth-coding technology was used to encode the depth information in PA images, which is very intuitive for identifying the depth of blood vessels in a two-dimensional image, and the vascular structure can be analyzed at different depths. Imaging results demonstrate that the 3D depth-coded PA microscopy should be translated from the bench to the bedside.