Photoacoustic imaging beyond our wildest dreams - arstechnica.com
Photoacoustic imaging represents a sort of "best of both" approach to imaging. The basic process is that a relatively powerful pulse of light is sent into some part of the body. Wherever it is absorbed—and only small amounts of light are absorbed in any particular place, so it is safe—it generates heat, as its target expands and generates a small acoustic pressure wave. By picking up these sound waves with microphones, an image of the absorbing structures can be built up.
