Sonoluminescent tomography of strongly scattering media.

A novel optical imaging technique called sonoluminescent tomography was developed for cross-sectional imaging of strongly scattering media noninvasively. Sonoluminescence, which was generated internally in the medium by cw ultrasound, was used to produce a two-dimensional image of an object embedded in a scattering medium by means of raster scanning the medium. The image had a high contrast and good spatial resolution. The spatial resolution was limited by the focal-spot size of the ultrasound, and one could improve the resolution by tightening the focus. This inexpensive imaging technique has potential applications in medicine and other fields related to scattering media.