{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,30]],"date-time":"2026-07-30T18:05:55Z","timestamp":1785434755805,"version":"3.56.0"},"reference-count":16,"publisher":"Optica Publishing Group","issue":"15","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,30]],"date-time":"2026-07-30T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1785369600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1364\/OA_License_v2#VOR"},{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,30]],"date-time":"2026-07-30T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1785369600000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/opg.optica.org\/policies\/opg-tdm-policy.json"}],"funder":[{"name":"Department of Biotechnology","award":["BT\/PR50627\/MED\/32\/993\/2023"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["BT\/PR50627\/MED\/32\/993\/2023"]}],"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/03tjsyq23","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"name":"Prime Minister\u2019s Research Fellowship","award":["0802614"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["0802614"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["opg.optica.org"],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Opt. Lett."],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,1]]},"abstract":"<jats:p>This article reports the development of non-contact photoacoustic imaging (nC-PAI)\u2014unlike the conventional PAI that mandates acoustic coupling gel\u2014employing and integrating for the first time: (i) MEMS piezoelectric-micromachined-ultrasound-transducer (PMUT) sensor, (ii) Snell\u2019s law-based refraction correction beamforming (S-rC-BForm), and (iii) signal averaging (sA). Quantitative pre-clinical validation studies\u2014both numerical simulations and experiments\u2014were conducted in diversified samples (agar phantoms and chicken breasts). The results demonstrate that our proposed nC-PAI enables achieving spatial-resolution \u223c0.6mm, SNR \u223c40dB, and contrast-ratio (CR) \u223c45dB at depth \u223c2.5mm (in tissues). Conclusively, the study demonstrates the promising practical applications of our fully contact- or coupling-free nC-PAI in clinical settings where one can not use the acoustic coupling gel, e.g., ophthalmic, skin-burns, intra-operative, wound-healing, and brain-imaging (non-intact skulls).<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1364\/ol.603035","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,9]],"date-time":"2026-07-09T14:00:10Z","timestamp":1783605610000},"page":"4376","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1364\/crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Non-contact photoacoustic imaging empowered with a PMUT sensor and refraction correction"],"prefix":"10.1364","volume":"51","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-7833-3337","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Arijit","family":"Paramanick","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/01pe3t004","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Akshay","family":"Kumar","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Centre for Nano-science and Engineering (CeNSE), Indian Institute of Science (IISc)"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Antony","family":"Jeyaseelan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Centre for Nano-science and Engineering (CeNSE), Indian Institute of Science (IISc)"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-6762-3101","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Deepayan","family":"Samanta","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/01pe3t004","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Rudra","family":"Pratap","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Centre for Nano-science and Engineering (CeNSE), Indian Institute of Science (IISc)"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-1823-0846","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Mayanglambam Suheshkumar","family":"Singh","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/01pe3t004","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"285","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,30]]},"reference":[{"key":"ol-51-15-4376-R1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"2352","DOI":"10.1038\/s41467-018-04576-z","type":"journal-article","volume":"9","author":"Lin","year":"2018","journal-title":"Nat. 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All rights, including for text and data mining (TDM), Artificial Intelligence (AI) training, and similar technologies, are reserved.","name":"copyright","label":"Copyright"}]}}