Author(s)

Tsutomu Hoshimiya, Mika Hatake-Yama

Graduate School of Engineering, Tohoku Gakuin University, Tagajo, Japan.

A photoacoustic (PA) imaging apparatus using a laser line-focus beam (LFB) was designed to perform rapid inspection and photoacoustic tomographic (PAT) imaging of surface and undersurface defects. 2D-PAT imaging of surface and undersurface defects was demonstrated based on a formulation similar to the X-ray tomography. The obtained PAT images represented forward-projected PA signals collected along the LFB. The reconstructed images were in close agreement with those obtained from laser point-focus beam (PFB) PA imaging. We achieved rapid non-destructive inspection of a surface-simulated defect using a LFB. The reconstructed PA image of the undersurface defect was consistent with that obtained by a plane-thermal wave diffraction model.

Imaging; Photoacoustic; Tomography; Line-Focus Beam

T. Hoshimiya and M. Hatake-Yama, "Photoacoustic Imaging with a Line-Focus Laser Beam for Rapid Inspection and Tomographic Characterization of Simulated Surface and Undersurface Defects," Open Journal of Acoustics, Vol. 3 No. 2A, 2013, pp. 8-15. doi: 10.4236/oja.2013.32A002.