Impulse-driven near-field radiofrequency thermoacoustic (NRT) tomography

Herein we suggest and experimentally validate a novel thermoacoustic imaging method that relies on near-field exposure of the object to ultrashort impulses of safe radiofrequency energies. The physical rationale behind the Near-field Radiofrequency Tomography (NRT) is the well known ability of biological tissues to absorb a very significant portion of energy when closely coupled to radiofrequency and microwave sources. Compared to existing thermoacoustic imaging implementations, NRT offers a significantly simpler and cost-effective technology that uses high energy impulses instead of expensive and inefficient carrier-frequency amplification methods, making it possible to achieve significantly better imaging resolution without compromising thermoacoustic signal strength.