• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2016.02a
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• pp.297.2-297.2
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• 2016

Photoacoustic generation of ultrasound is an effective approach for development of high-frequency and high-amplitude ultrasound transmitters. This requires an efficient energy converter from optical input to acoustic output. For such photoacoustic conversion, various light-absorbing materials have been used such as metallic coating, dye-doped polymer composite, and nanostructure composite. These transmitters absorb laser pulses with 5-10 ns widths for generation of tens-of-MHz frequency ultrasound. The short optical pulse leads to rapid heating of the irradiated region and therefore fast thermal expansion before significant heat diffusion occurs to the surrounding. In this purpose, nanocomposite thin films containing gold nanoparticles, carbon nanotubes (CNTs), or carbon nanofibers have been recently proposed for high optical absorption, efficient thermoacosutic transfer, and mechanical robustness. These properties are necessary to produce a high-amplitude ultrasonic output under a low-energy optical input. Here, we investigate carbon nanotube (CNT)-polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) composite transmitters and their nanostructure-originated characteristics enabling extraordinary energy conversion. We explain a thermoelastic energy conversion mechanism within the nanocomposite and examine nanostructures by using a scanning electron microscopy. Then, we measure laser-induced damage threshold of the transmitters against pulsed laser ablation. Particularly, laser-induced damage threshold has been largely overlooked so far in the development of photoacoustic transmitters. Higher damage threshold means that transmitters can withstand optical irradiation with higher laser energy and produce higher pressure output proportional to such optical input. We discuss an optimal design of CNT-PDMS composite transmitter for high-amplitude pressure generation (e.g. focused ultrasound transmitter) useful for therapeutic applications. It is fabricated using a focal structure (spherically concave substrate) that is coated with a CNT-PDMS composite layer. We also introduce some application examples of the high-amplitude focused transmitter based on the CNT-PDMS composite film.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2016.02a
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• pp.377-377
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• 2016

Under nanosecond-pulsed laser irradiation, light-absorbing thin films have been used for photoacoustic transmitters for ultrasound generation. Especially, nanostructured absorbers are attractive due to high optical absorption and efficient thermoacoustic energy conversion: for example, 2-dimensional (2-D) gold nanostructure array, synthetic gold nanoparticles, carbon nanotubes (CNTs), and reduced graphene oxides. Among them, CNT has been used to fabricate a composite film with polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) that exhibits excellent photoacoustic conversion performance for high-frequency, high-amplitude ultrasound generation. Previously, CNT-PDMS nanocomposite films were made by using a high-temperature chemical vapor deposition (HTCVD) process for CNT growth. However, this approach is not suitable to fabricate large-area CNT films (>several cm2). This is because a chamber dimension of HTCVD is limited and also the process often causes nonuniform CNT growth when the film area increases. As an alternative approach, a solution-based process can be used to overcome these issues. We develop PDMS composite transmitters, based on the solution process, using several nanostructured light-absorbers such as CNTs, nanoink powders, and imprinted regular arrays of gold nanostructure. We compare fabrication processes of each composite transmitters and photoacoustic output performance.