FERNANDO PEREZ-COTA's Outputs (17)

Optoacoustic lenses for lateral sub-optical resolution elasticity imaging (2025)
Journal Article
Yao, M., Fuentes-Dominguez, R., La Cavera III, S., Perez-Cota, F., Smith, R. J., & Clark, M. (in press). Optoacoustic lenses for lateral sub-optical resolution elasticity imaging. Photoacoustics, 41, Article 100663. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pacs.2024.100663

In this paper, we demonstrate for the first time the focusing of gigahertz coherent phonon pulses propagating in water using picosecond ultrasonics and Brillouin light scattering. We achieve this by using planar Fresnel zone plate and concave lenses... Read More about Optoacoustic lenses for lateral sub-optical resolution elasticity imaging.

Label-free Brillouin endo-microscopy for the quantitative 3D imaging of sub-micrometre biology (2024)
Journal Article
La Cavera, S., Chauhan, V. M., Hardiman, W., Yao, M., Fuentes-Domínguez, R., Setchfield, K., …Clark, M. (2024). Label-free Brillouin endo-microscopy for the quantitative 3D imaging of sub-micrometre biology. Communications Biology, 7(1), Article 451. https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-024-06126-4

This report presents an optical fibre-based endo-microscopic imaging tool that simultaneously measures the topographic profile and 3D viscoelastic properties of biological specimens through the phenomenon of time-resolved Brillouin scattering. This u... Read More about Label-free Brillouin endo-microscopy for the quantitative 3D imaging of sub-micrometre biology.

Classification of cancer cells at the sub-cellular level by phonon microscopy using deep learning (2023)
Journal Article
Pérez-Cota, F., Martínez-Arellano, G., La Cavera III, S., Hardiman, W., Thornton, L., Fuentes-Domínguez, R., …Clark, M. (2023). Classification of cancer cells at the sub-cellular level by phonon microscopy using deep learning. Scientific Reports, 13, Article 16228. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-42793-9

There is a consensus about the strong correlation between the elasticity of cells and tissue and their normal, dysplastic, and cancerous states. However, developments in cell mechanics have not seen significant progress in clinical applications. In t... Read More about Classification of cancer cells at the sub-cellular level by phonon microscopy using deep learning.

Living cells as a biological analog of optical tweezers – a non-invasive microrheology approach (2023)
Journal Article
Hardiman, W., Clark, M., Friel, C., Huett, A., Pérez-Cota, F., Setchfield, K., …Tassieri, M. (2023). Living cells as a biological analog of optical tweezers – a non-invasive microrheology approach. Acta Biomaterialia, 166, 317-325. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actbio.2023.04.039

Microrheology, the study of fluids on micron length-scales, promises to reveal insights into cellular biology, including mechanical biomarkers of disease and the interplay between biomechanics and cellular function. Here a minimally-invasive passive... Read More about Living cells as a biological analog of optical tweezers – a non-invasive microrheology approach.

Phonon imaging in 3D with a fibre probe (2021)
Journal Article
La Cavera III, S., Pérez-Cota, F., Smith, R. J., & Clark, M. (2021). Phonon imaging in 3D with a fibre probe. Light: Science and Applications, 10, Article 91. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41377-021-00532-7

We show for the first time that a single ultrasonic imaging fibre is capable of simultaneously accessing 3D spatial information and mechanical properties from microscopic objects. The novel measurement system consists of two ultrafast lasers that exc... Read More about Phonon imaging in 3D with a fibre probe.

Picosecond ultrasonics for elasticity-based imaging and characterization of biological cells (2020)
Journal Article
Pérez-Cota, F., Fuentes-Domínguez, R., La Cavera III, S., Hardiman, W., Yao, M., Setchfield, K., …Clark, M. (2020). Picosecond ultrasonics for elasticity-based imaging and characterization of biological cells. Journal of Applied Physics, 128(16), Article 160902. https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0023744

© 2020 Author(s). Characterization of the elasticity of biological cells is growing as a new way to gain insight into cell biology. Cell mechanics are related to most aspects of cellular behavior, and applications in research and medicine are broad.... Read More about Picosecond ultrasonics for elasticity-based imaging and characterization of biological cells.

Apparent attenuation by opto-acoustic defocus in phonon microscopy (2020)
Journal Article
Fuentes-Domínguez, R., La Cavera, S., Pérez-Cota, F., La Cavera III, S., Naznin, S., Fuentes-Dominguez, R., …Clark, M. (2020). Apparent attenuation by opto-acoustic defocus in phonon microscopy. Photoacoustics, 19, Article 100180. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pacs.2020.100180

© 2020 The Author(s) Understanding the mechanical properties of biological cells is a challenging problem for the life sciences partly because there are limited methods for mapping elasticity with high resolution. Phonon microscopy is a form of Brill... Read More about Apparent attenuation by opto-acoustic defocus in phonon microscopy.

Time resolved Brillouin fiber-spectrometer (2019)
Journal Article
La Cavera, S., Pérez-Cota, F., Fuentes-Domínguez, R., Smith, R. J., & Clark, M. (2019). Time resolved Brillouin fiber-spectrometer. Optics Express, 27(18), 25064-25071. https://doi.org/10.1364/OE.27.025064

This report introduces a novel time resolved Brillouin spectrometer, consisting of an opto-acoustic transducer which resides on the tip of a single-mode optical fiber of arbitrary length with 125 µm outer diameter and 5 µm sensing diameter. Demonstra... Read More about Time resolved Brillouin fiber-spectrometer.

New insights into the mechanical properties of Acanthamoeba castellanii cysts as revealed by phonon microscopy (2019)
Journal Article
Pérez-Cota, F., Smith, R. J., Elsheikha, H. M., & Clark, M. (2019). New insights into the mechanical properties of Acanthamoeba castellanii cysts as revealed by phonon microscopy. Biomedical Optics Express, 10(5), 2399-2408. https://doi.org/10.1364/BOE.10.002399

The single cell eukaryotic protozoan Acanthamoeba castellanii exhibits a remarkable ability to switch from a vegetative trophozoite stage to a cystic form, in response to stressors. This phenotypic switch involves changes in gene expression and synth... Read More about New insights into the mechanical properties of Acanthamoeba castellanii cysts as revealed by phonon microscopy.

Super-resolution imaging using nano-bells (2018)
Journal Article
Fuentes-Dominguez, R., Pérez-Cota, F., Naznin, S., Smith, R. J., & Clark, M. (2018). Super-resolution imaging using nano-bells. Scientific Reports, 8, 1-9. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-34744-6

In this paper we demonstrate a new scheme for optical super-resolution, inspired, in-part, by PALM and STORM. In this scheme each object in the field of view is tagged with a signal that allows them to be detected separately. By doing this we can ide... Read More about Super-resolution imaging using nano-bells.

Cell imaging by phonon microscopy: sub-optical wavelength ultrasound for non-invasive imaging (2017)
Journal Article
Perez-Cota, F., Smith, R. J., Moradi, E., Leija, A. L., Velickovic, K., Marques, L., …Clark, M. (2017). Cell imaging by phonon microscopy: sub-optical wavelength ultrasound for non-invasive imaging

The mechanical properties of cells play an important role in cell function and behavior. This paper presents recent developments that have enabled the use of laser-generated phonons (ultrasound) with sub-optical wavelengths to look inside living cell... Read More about Cell imaging by phonon microscopy: sub-optical wavelength ultrasound for non-invasive imaging.

High resolution 3D imaging of living cells with sub-optical wavelength phonons (2016)
Journal Article
Perez-Cota, F., Smith, R. J., Moradi, E., Marques, L., Webb, K. F., & Clark, M. (2016). High resolution 3D imaging of living cells with sub-optical wavelength phonons. Scientific Reports, 6, Article 39326. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep39326

Label-free imaging of living cells below the optical diffraction limit poses great challenges for optical microscopy. Biologically relevant structural information remains below the Rayleigh limit and beyond the reach of conventional microscopes. Supe... Read More about High resolution 3D imaging of living cells with sub-optical wavelength phonons.

Thin-film transducers for the detection and imaging of Brillouin oscillations in transmission on cultured cells (2015)
Journal Article
Perez-Cota, F., Smith, R. J., Moradi, E., Webb, K. F., & Clark, M. (in press). Thin-film transducers for the detection and imaging of Brillouin oscillations in transmission on cultured cells. Journal of Physics: Conference Series, 684(1), https://doi.org/10.1088/1742-6596/684/1/012003

Mechanical imaging and characterisation of biological cells has been a subject of interest for the last twenty years. Ultrasonic imaging based on the scanning acoustic microscope (SAM) and mechanical probing have been extensively reported. Large acou... Read More about Thin-film transducers for the detection and imaging of Brillouin oscillations in transmission on cultured cells.

Thin-film optoacoustic transducers for the subcellular Brillouin oscillation imaging of individual biological cells (2015)
Journal Article
Perez-Cota, F., Smith, R. J., Moradi, E., Marques, L., Webb, K. F., & Clark, M. (2015). Thin-film optoacoustic transducers for the subcellular Brillouin oscillation imaging of individual biological cells. Applied Optics, 54(28), https://doi.org/10.1364/AO.54.008388

Mechanical characterisation and imaging of biological tissue has piqued interest in the applicability to cell and tissue biology. One method, based on detection of Brillouin oscillations, has already lead to demonstrations on biological cells using u... Read More about Thin-film optoacoustic transducers for the subcellular Brillouin oscillation imaging of individual biological cells.

Optically excited nanoscale ultrasonic transducers (2015)
Journal Article
Smith, R. J., Cota, F. P., Marques, L., Chen, X., Arca, A., Webb, K., …Clark, M. (2015). Optically excited nanoscale ultrasonic transducers. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 137(1), 219-227. https://doi.org/10.1121/1.4904487

© 2015 Acoustical Society of America. In order to work at higher ultrasonic frequencies, for instance, to increase the resolution, it is necessary to fabricate smaller and higher frequency transducers. This paper presents an ultrasonic transducer cap... Read More about Optically excited nanoscale ultrasonic transducers.

Sound of nano
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Aylott, J., Clark, M., Marques, L., Perez-Cota, F., Smith, R. J., & Webb, K. F. Sound of nano. Presented at SPIE Micro+Nano Materials, Devices, and Applications, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Ultrasound is widely used for imaging, measurement and diagnostics in the MHz region and is perhaps most familiar as a medical or non-destructive imaging or measurement tool. In the MHz frequency range the wavelength is typically measured in microns... Read More about Sound of nano.

Cell imaging using sub-optical wavelength ultrasonics
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Clark, M., Marques, L., Moradi, E., Perez-Cota, F., Smith, R. J., & Webb, K. F. (2015, November). Cell imaging using sub-optical wavelength ultrasonics. Presented at Asia Communications and Photonics Conference, ACPC 2015, Hong Kong

At GHz frequencies the wavelength of ultrasound becomes comparable or smaller than the wavelength of light and so offers an intriguing way to image at the small scale. In this paper we report on new developments in pico-second laser ultrasonics that... Read More about Cell imaging using sub-optical wavelength ultrasonics.