Second harmonic magnetoacoustic responses of magnetic nanoparticles in magnetoacoustic tomography with magnetic induction

Due to the unique magnetic, mechanical and thermal properties, magnetic nanoparticles(MNPs) have comprehensive applications as the contrast and therapeutic agents in biomedical imaging and magnetic hyperthermia. The linear and nonlinear magnetoacoustic responses determined by the magnetic properties of MNPs have attracted more and more attention in biomedical engineering. By considering the relaxation time of MNPs, we derive the formulae of second harmonic magnetoacoustic responses(2H-MARs) for a cylindrical MNP solution model based on the mechanical oscillations of MNPs in magnetoacoustic tomography with magnetic induction(MAT-MI). It is proved that only the second harmonic magnetoacoustic oscillations can be generated by MNPs under an alternating magnetic excitation. The acoustic pressure of the 2H-MAR is proportional to the square of the magnetic field intensity and exhibits a linear increase with the concentration of MNPs. Numerical simulations of the 2H-MAR are confirmed by the experimental measurements for various magnetic field intensities and solution concentrations using a laser vibrometer. The favorable results demonstrate the feasibility of the harmonic measurements without the fundamental interference of the electromagnetic excitation, and suggest a new harmonic imaging strategy of MAT-MI for MNPs with enhanced spatial resolution and improved signal-to-noise ratio in biomedical applications.     

Beam alignments based on the spectrum decomposition of orbital angular momentums for acoustic-vortex communications

Given the enhanced channel capacity of wave chirality, acoustic communications based on the orbital angular momentum (OAM) of acoustic-vortex (AV) beams are of significant interest for underwater data transmissions. However, the stringent beam alignment is required for the coaxial arrangement of transceiver arrays to ensure the accuracy and reliability of OAM decoding. To avoid the required multiple measurements of the traditional orthogonality based algorithm, the beam alignment algorithm based on the OAM spectrum decomposition is proposed for AV communications by using simplified ring-arrays. Numerical studies of the single-OAM and OAM-multiplexed AV beams show that the error of the OAM spectrum increases with the translation distance and the deflection angle of the transceiver arrays. To achieve an ideal arrangement, two methods of the single-array translation alignment and the dual-array deflection alignment are developed based on the least standard deviation of the OAM spectrum (SD-OAM). By decreasing the SD-OAM towards zero using transceiver arrays of 16 transmitters and 16 receivers, accurate beam alignments are accomplished by multiple adjustments in three dimensions. The proposed method is also demonstrated by experimental measurements of the OAM dispersion and the SD-OAM for misaligned beams. The results demonstrate the feasibility of the rapid beam alignment based on the OAM spectrum decomposition by using simplified transceiver ring-arrays, and suggest more application potentials for acoustic communications.     

共轴双涡旋声束形成离轴多涡旋的定位

涡旋声束具有螺旋的相位波前,中轴线上形成声强为零的相位奇点,其所携带的轨道角动量在粒子操控领域有着广阔的应用前景。传统声涡旋只在传播轴线上形成一个拓扑荷可控的涡旋波束,这限制了声涡旋的应用灵活性。基于环形点声源阵列和相位编码技术,利用奇偶声源分别产生共轴双涡旋声束的声场叠加,在传播截面上形成了具有中心涡旋和子涡旋的离轴多涡旋声场;研究了双涡旋拓扑参数对离轴涡旋的个数、位置及拓扑荷的影响,基于声涡旋的径向声压和相位分布,确定了离轴涡旋的离轴半径,并结合声源位置推导子涡旋中心方位角的计算公式,实现离轴涡旋的精确定位。本研究突破了沿轴分布的涡旋声场只能形成单点涡旋势阱的操控局限,为利用离轴多涡旋实现多点粒子捕获提供了理论依据,促进涡旋声场在精确粒子操控和传输方面的高效应用。      

Performance improvement of magneto-acousto-electrical tomography for biological tissues with sinusoid-Barker coded excitation

By combining magnetics, acoustics and electrics, the magneto-acoustic-electrical tomography(MAET) proves to possess the capability of differentiating electrical impedance variation and thus improving the spatial resolution. However,the signal-to-noise ratio(SNR) of the collected MAET signal is still unsatisfactory for biological tissues with low-level electrical conductivity. In this study, the formula of MAET measurement with sinusoid-Barker coded excitation is derived and simplified for a planar piston transducer. Numerical simulations are conducted for a four-layered gel phantom with the 13-bit sinusoid-Barker coded excitation, and the performances of wave packet recovery with side-lobe suppression are improved by using the mismatched compression filter, which is also demonstrated by experimentally measuring a three-layered gel phantom. It is demonstrated that comparing with the single-cycle sinusoidal excitation, the amplitude of the driving signal can be reduced greatly with an SNR enhancement of 10 dB using the 13-bit sinusoid-Barker coded excitation. The amplitude and polarity of the wave packet filtered from the collected MAET signal can be used to achieve the conductivity derivative at the tissue boundary. In this study, we apply the sinusoid-Barker coded modulation method and the mismatched suppression scheme to MAET measurement to ensure the safety for biological tissues with improved SNR and spatial resolution, and suggest the potential applications in biomedical imaging.     

环形稀疏声源阵列声涡旋的优化与操控

提出和优化了环形稀疏声源阵列涡旋声场的形成方法,进行了涡旋声压,相位和振动速度的理论推导和特性分析。通过改变声源数、声源频率和观测距离等参数,对声涡旋场的模拟结果证明,声涡旋半径主要由信号波长决定,声源频率越高,声涡旋半径越小,能量越集中;涡旋声压随着声源数的增加而线性提高,随着传播距离的增加而减小;声涡旋环形相位分布的线性度随着声源数、声源波长和传播距离的增加而提高。建立了3/4/6/8声源实验系统,径向声压和相位分布以及环形相位分布的测量结果和模拟结果具有较好的一致性,同时悬吊泡沫盘的旋转证明了声涡旋角动量的传输。本研究中声涡旋场的特性分析和参数优化为粒子操控及其在生物医学中的应用提供了依据。