Instrumentation in diffuse optical imaging

Abstract

Diffuse optical imaging is highly versatile and has a very broad range of applications in biology and medicine. It covers diffuse optical tomography, fluorescence diffuse optical tomography, bioluminescence and a number of other new imaging methods. These methods of diffuse optical imaging have diversified instrument configurations, but share the same core physical principle: light propagation in highly diffusive media, i.e., biological tissue. In this review, the author summarizes the latest development in instrumentation and methodology available to diffuse optical imaging in terms of system architecture, light source, photo-detection, spectral separation, signal modulation and, lastly, imaging contrast.