Acousto-optic imaging (AOI) enables the non-invasive imaging of light diffusion patterns inside biological tissues. To perform depth-resolved imaging without mechanical scanning, time-gated AOI is often used, in which ultrasound pulses, rather than continuous waves, are delivered into the tissue. However, to achieve a high axial resolution, few-cycle pulses are used, leading to a short measurement time and poor SNR. Here, we experimentally demonstrate a new approach to AOI in which coded ultrasound pulses are used to improve the SNR without sacrificing the axial resolution.
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