Measurement of Grüneisen parameter of tissue by photoacoustic spectrometry

The Grüneisen parameter of tissue is a constitutive parameter in photoacoustic tomography. Here, we applied photoacoustic spectrometry (PAS) to directly measure the Grüneisen parameter. In our PAS system, laser pulses at wavelengths between 460 and 1600 nm were delivered to tissue samples, and photoacoustic signals were detected by a 20 MHz flat water-immersion ultrasonic transducer. By fitting photoacoustic spectra to light absorption spectra, we found that the Grüneisen parameter was 0.73 for porcine subcutaneous fat tissue, and 0.15 for oxygenated bovine red blood cells at room temperature (24°C).