Laser speckle contrast imaging device and method for realizing deep tissue detection
Technical Field
The invention relates to the field of optical imaging, in particular to a laser speckle contrast imaging device and method for realizing deep tissue detection.
Background
When coherent light interacts with a random medium, the sensor receives light scattered from different locations in the medium, resulting in a random distribution of destructive or constructive interference, which is laser speckle. The movement of scattering particles in a random medium causes a phase shift in the scattered light, causing temporal fluctuations in the speckle pattern. By analyzing this fluctuation, information on the movement of the scattering particles can be obtained, and the speed of movement of the particles can be characterized by speckle contrast. This is the working principle of the laser speckle contrast imaging technology.
Since the 20 th century 90 s, the laser speckle contrast imaging technology is provided, and by the characteristics of non-contact, rapidness, high resolution and capability of realizing large-range flow velocity imaging without scanning, the laser speckle contrast imaging technology is applied to the fields of cerebral cortex imaging, blood flow skin perfusion, retina imaging, joint, mesentery and the like, and provides an important research tool for reflecting biological tissue function activities, disclosing major disease generation mechanisms and evaluating drug effects.
However, due to the limitation of its working principle, the laser speckle contrast imaging technology inevitably has some problems to be solved in application. Laser speckle contrast imaging is an optical imaging technology, and objects observed by the imaging technology all belong to high scattering media. When photons are incident on such a medium, they may be scattered directly by the tissue surface, or they may enter the tissue and be absorbed or scattered multiple times and escape from the tissue. When the lens is used for collecting scattered light, light rays from different depths of tissues cannot be distinguished, so that information of different depth levels is influenced mutually, and therefore the lens can only measure a shallow surface of the tissue and cannot accurately detect deeper tissues.
Disclosure of Invention
Aiming at the defects of the laser speckle contrast imaging technology, the invention provides the laser speckle contrast imaging device and the laser speckle contrast imaging method for realizing deep tissue detection.
The purpose of the invention is realized by the following technical scheme:
a laser speckle contrast imaging device for enabling deep tissue detection, comprising: laser light source, beam expander, polarizer, semi-transparent semi-reflecting mirror, the sample that awaits measuring, analyzer, objective, relay lens, light field camera, wherein, laser light source transmission laser process the beam expander with behind the linear polarizer via the semi-transparent semi-reflecting mirror shines on the sample that awaits measuring, different degree of depth particles in the sample that awaits measuring scatter the linear polarization light of incident, take place different degree depolarization phenomenon, the scattered light through one with polarizer transmission direction mutually perpendicular behind the analyzer by the objective is collected, the process relay lens quilt the light field camera is received at last.
The laser light source is used for emitting laser beams to irradiate a sample to be detected;
the beam expander is used for expanding the irradiation area of the laser and enabling the laser irradiation to be more uniform;
the polarizer is used for changing the passed light into linearly polarized light;
the semi-transmitting and semi-reflecting mirror is used for reflecting the light emitted by the laser light source and transmitting the light backscattered by the sample to be detected;
the sample to be detected is biological tissue, scattering medium, turbid liquid and the like;
the polarization analyzer is used for filtering photons scattered and depolarized from the sample to be detected and enabling the photons scattered from the sample to be detected to selectively pass through;
the objective lens is used for collecting light backscattered from the sample to be detected and primarily amplifying an image;
the relay lens is used for amplifying the speckle image again;
the light field camera is used for collecting and imaging scattered light and can realize the depth of field expansion function of images.
A laser speckle contrast imaging method for realizing deep tissue detection utilizes the device, and comprises the following steps:
fixing the device on an optical platform, starting a laser, expanding a laser beam by a beam expander and polarizing by a polarizer in sequence, and then irradiating the laser beam on a sample to be measured by reflection of a semi-transparent and semi-reflective mirror;
scattering particles at different depths in a sample to be detected scatter incident polarized light, and the scattered light is depolarized to different degrees;
step (3), after the scattered light escapes from the surface of the sample to be detected, the scattered light penetrates through the semi-transparent semi-reflective mirror to reach the analyzer, scattered light photons with the polarization direction parallel to the polarization transmission direction of the analyzer penetrate through the analyzer to generate random interference to generate speckle signals, and the rest part of scattered light photons is filtered by the analyzer;
step (4), collecting the speckle signals by an objective lens for preliminary amplification, then amplifying the signals again by a relay lens, and receiving the signals by a light field camera to obtain an original speckle image;
and (5) processing the original speckle image through an algorithm to finally obtain a deep distribution image of the sample to be detected.
The invention relates to a laser speckle contrast imaging method for realizing deep tissue detection, which has the following realization principle:
(1) when the linearly polarized light irradiates the sample to be detected, one part of the linearly polarized light is directly scattered by the surface of the sample to be detected and still is linearly polarized light, the polarization direction of the linearly polarized light is consistent with the polarization direction of incident light, and the part of the light cannot pass through the analyzer;
(2) the light which is emitted into the shallow surface layer of the sample to be measured and escapes to the sample to be measured due to weak scattering is polarization maintaining light, and the polarization direction of the light is consistent with the polarization direction of the incident light. Therefore, this portion of light will be filtered out when passing through the analyzer;
(3) when incident linearly polarized light is scattered for multiple times in a sample to be detected and reaches the deep layer of the sample to be detected, the back scattered light generates depolarization phenomenon, the polarization direction of photons is random and all directions are the same, and the photons have consistent contributions to components parallel to the polarization direction of the analyzer and components perpendicular to the polarization direction of the analyzer. Therefore, when light passes through the analyzer, a part of multiply scattered light can reach the light field camera through the analyzer to be imaged, and the light collected by the light field camera only contains information of the deep part of the tissue.
Wherein the multiple scattering is more than 10 scattering events.
According to the technical scheme provided by the invention, the orthogonal polarization technology is introduced into the existing laser speckle contrast imaging technology, so that the scattered light on the surface of the tissue can be filtered, the interference among information of different depth levels is reduced, and the contrast and the signal-to-noise ratio of the speckle pattern in the deep layer of the tissue are improved; the orthogonal polarization pair introduced by the method has the advantages of simple structure, small volume, convenience for integration and wide application prospect.
Drawings
In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present invention, the drawings needed to be used in the description of the embodiments are briefly introduced below, and it is obvious that the drawings in the following description are only some embodiments of the present invention, and it is obvious for those skilled in the art to obtain other drawings based on the drawings without creative efforts.
Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of a laser speckle contrast imaging apparatus for detecting deep tissue according to an embodiment of the present invention.
Fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of the polarization state of the sample to be measured after being irradiated by the linearly polarized light.
Fig. 3 is a schematic diagram of another embodiment of the present invention.
Wherein: 01 is a laser light source, 02 is a beam expander, 03 is a polarizer, 04 is a semi-transparent and semi-reflective mirror, 05 is a sample to be measured, 06 is an analyzer, 07 is an objective lens, 08 is a relay lens, 09 is a light field camera, and 10 is a polarization beam splitter.
Detailed Description
The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention are clearly and completely described below with reference to the drawings in the embodiments of the present invention, and it is obvious that the described embodiments are only a part of the embodiments of the present invention, and not all embodiments. All other embodiments, which can be derived by a person skilled in the art from the embodiments of the present invention without making any creative effort, shall fall within the protection scope of the present invention.
Example (b):
fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of a laser speckle contrast imaging apparatus for detecting deep tissue according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in fig. 1, it mainly includes: the laser light source 01 is used for emitting laser beams to irradiate a sample 05 to be detected; the beam expander 02 is used for expanding the irradiation area of the laser and enabling the laser irradiation to be more uniform; a polarizer 03 for converting the passed light into linearly polarized light; the semi-transparent semi-reflecting mirror 04 is used for reflecting the light emitted by the laser light source 01 and transmitting the light backscattered by the sample 05 to be detected; the sample 05 to be tested is a raw tissue fluid simulated by a mixed solution of 1% agarose and 2% cream, and a capillary vessel injected with 10% butter diluent is used for simulating blood vessels at different depths in a tissue; the analyzer 06, the transmission direction of which is perpendicular to that of the polarizer 03, is used for filtering the photons scattered and depolarized from the sample 05 to be measured, so that the photons scattered from the sample 05 to be measured selectively pass through; the objective lens 07 is used for collecting light backscattered from the sample 05 to be detected and primarily amplifying the speckle image; a relay lens 08 for magnifying the speckle image again; and the light field camera 09 is used for collecting and imaging the scattered light and realizing the field depth expansion of the image by utilizing the digital refocusing function.
The theoretical principle on which the technical scheme is based can be seen in fig. 2, and fig. 2 shows a schematic diagram of the polarization state of the sample 05 to be measured after linearly polarized light irradiates.
As shown in fig. 2:
1. when the linearly polarized light irradiates the sample 05 to be measured, a part of the linearly polarized light is directly scattered by the surface of the sample 05 to be measured and still is linearly polarized, and the polarization direction of the linearly polarized light is consistent with the polarization direction of the incident light, so that the part of the light cannot pass through the analyzer 06.
2. The light that linearly polarized light enters the shallow surface layer (area a in fig. 2) of the sample 05 to be measured and escapes as the sample 05 to be measured due to weak scattering is polarization maintaining light, and the polarization direction of the light is also consistent with the polarization direction of the incident light. Therefore, this portion of the light will be filtered out when passing through the analyzer 06.
3. When the incident linearly polarized light is scattered for multiple times (more than 10 scattering events) in the sample 05 to be measured and reaches the deep layer (area b in fig. 2) of the sample 05 to be measured, the back scattering light generates depolarization, the polarization direction of the photons is random and has all directions, and the contributions to the components parallel to the transmission direction of the analyzer 06 and the components perpendicular to the transmission direction of the analyzer 06 are consistent. Therefore, when light passes through the analyzer 06, a part of the multiple scattered light can reach the light field camera 09 through the analyzer 06 for imaging, and the light collected by the light field camera 09 only contains information in the depth of the tissue.
Fig. 3 shows another embodiment of the present invention, in which a polarizing beam splitter 10 is used to replace the combined action of the polarizer 03, the half mirror 04 and the analyzer 06, and the turning action of the optical path and the selective transmission effect of the scattered light are not changed. Incident light irradiates on the polarization beam splitter 10, the component vibrating along the S direction is reflected to a sample 05 to be measured, depolarization of different degrees occurs through scattering of the sample 05 to be measured, the component vibrating along the S direction in scattered light is filtered by the polarization beam splitter 10, and only the component vibrating along the P direction penetrates through the polarization beam splitter 10 and passes through the objective lens 07 and the relay lens 08 to be finally received by the light field camera 09. The polarization beam splitter 10 replaces the polarizer 03, the semi-transparent semi-reflective mirror 04 and the polarization analyzer 06, so that the utilization rate of light can be improved, and meanwhile, the light path is simpler and easier to adjust.
According to the scheme of the embodiment of the invention, a pair of orthogonal polarizing plates or a polarizing beam splitter is introduced, the orthogonal polarization technology is utilized to separate the scattered light from different depths of the tissue, so that the light directly scattered from the surface of the tissue and the weak scattered light on the shallow surface of the tissue are filtered, and only the light scattered for multiple times in the depth of the tissue is allowed to pass through and is collected and imaged by the light field camera, so that the influence of the mutual superposition of the light at different depth levels on imaging is eliminated, and the tissue detection aiming at the deeper distribution of blood vessels can be realized.
The above description is only for the preferred embodiment of the present invention, but the scope of the present invention is not limited thereto, and any changes or substitutions that can be easily conceived by those skilled in the art within the technical scope of the present invention are included in the scope of the present invention. Therefore, the protection scope of the present invention shall be subject to the protection scope of the claims.