Project:	Photoacoustic, light-speed, and quantum imaging/physics
Disciplines:	Electrical Engineering, Applied Physics
Mentor:	Lihong Wang, Bren Professor, (EAS), lvw@caltech.edu, Phone: 6263951970
Mentor URL:	https://coilab.caltech.edu/  (opens in new window)
Background:	We developed photoacoustic tomography (PAT) to peer deep into biological tissue. PAT offers in vivo functional, metabolic, molecular, and histologic imaging across scales from organelles to entire organisms. Additionally, we developed light-speed compressed ultrafast photography (CUP) to record 219 trillion frames per second, vastly surpassing commercially available camera technologies. CUP can capture real-time images of the fastest phenomena in nature, such as light propagation, and can be slowed down to record slower events like neural conduction. We are also exploring quantum entanglement for imaging. PAT physically combines optical and ultrasonic waves. Conventional high-resolution optical imaging of scattering tissue is limited to depths within the optical diffusion limit (~1 mm). PAT overcomes this limit, providing centimeter-scale deep penetration with high ultrasonic resolution and high optical contrast by sensing molecules. Its broad applications include early cancer detection and brain imaging. The annual conference on PAT has become the largest in SPIE’s 20,000-attendee Photonics West since 2010. CUP, with a single exposure, can image transient events occurring on time scales down to tens of femtoseconds. Like traditional photography, CUP is receive-only, avoiding the need for specialized active illumination required by other single-shot ultrafast imagers. CUP can be coupled with front optics ranging from microscopes to telescopes, enabling widespread applications in both fundamental and applied sciences, from biology to cosmophysics. Quantum imaging with the Heisenberg scaling improves spatial resolution linearly with the number of quanta, surpassing the square-root improvement of the standard quantum scaling.
Description:	Students will work with a lab mentor on one of the existing projects.
References:	https://coilab.caltech.edu/
Student Requirements:	Physics, EE
Programs:	This AO can be done under the following programs:   Program    Available To        SURF    both Caltech and non-Caltech students  Click on a program name for program info and application requirements.