Detection of ultrasound-modulated diffuse photons using spectral-hole burning

The lack of efficient detection techniques has so far prevented ultrasound-modulated optical tomography from achieving maturity. By applying a quantum spectral filter based on spectral-hole burning, one modulation sideband of the ultrasound-modulated diffuse photons can be efficiently selected while the DC and the other sidebands are blocked. This technique features a large etendue as well as the capability of processing numerous speckles in parallel. It is also immune to speckle decorrelation, potentially allowing real-time in vivo imaging. Both theory and experiments are presented. (C) 2008 Optical Society of America.