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Topic · Biomedical Engineering

Photoacoustic and Ultrasonic Imaging

Photoacoustic and Ultrasonic Imaging is a research topic within Biomedical Engineering. Science Explorer counts 41k research works in it since 1950. 9.9% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers represents advances in photoacoustic imaging and tomography, including biomedical applications, molecular imaging, optoacoustic techniques, and the development of contrast agents. The research focuses on high-resolution in vivo imaging, functional imaging, and its application in cancer detection and diagnosis.

  • Photoacoustic Imaging
  • Tomography
  • Biomedical Applications
  • Molecular Imaging
  • Optoacoustic Techniques
  • Contrast Agents
  • In Vivo Imaging
  • High-Resolution Microscopy
  • Functional Imaging
  • Cancer Detection
Research works
41k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
4k
per year above
Top-10% rate
9.9%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+3%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
China
44% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Photoacoustic and Ultrasonic Imaging

Which countries lead Photoacoustic and Ultrasonic Imaging research?

By volume, China and the United States publish the most (2.9k and 1.6k works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 China 2.9k works
  2. 2 United States 1.6k works
  3. 3 India 331 works
  4. 4 Germany 331 works
  5. 5 United Kingdom 280 works
  6. 6 South Korea 278 works
  7. 7 Japan 276 works
  8. 8 France 271 works
  9. 9 Canada 224 works
  10. 10 Italy 182 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

China: 43.6%United States: 23.6%India: 5.0%Germany: 5.0%6 others listed: 22.9%44%largest
China2,882 · 43.6%United States1,559 · 23.6%India331 · 5.0%Germany331 · 5.0%6 others listed1,512 · 22.9%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Photoacoustic and Ultrasonic Imaging research?

By volume in 2022-now, Chinese Academy of Sciences publishes the most Photoacoustic and Ultrasonic Imaging research, followed by Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 161 works
  2. 2 Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueFrance 111 works
  3. 3 Shanghai Jiao Tong UniversityChina 62 works
  4. 4 Tsinghua UniversityChina 61 works
  5. 5 Russian Academy of SciencesRussia 58 works
  6. 6 Harvard UniversityUnited States 55 works
  7. 7 Fudan UniversityChina 53 works
  8. 8 Zhejiang UniversityChina 51 works
  9. 9 University of TorontoCanada 48 works
  10. 10 Harbin Institute of TechnologyChina 48 works

Who are the leading researchers in Photoacoustic and Ultrasonic Imaging?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Photoacoustic and Ultrasonic Imaging include Zhong Lin Wang, Róbert Langer and Wei Huang.

  1. 1 Zhong Lin Wang United States 491k citations
  2. 2 Róbert Langer United States 303k citations
  3. 3 Wei Huang China 267k citations
  4. 4 Ben Zhong Tang China 261k citations
  5. 5 Xiaogang Wang China 260k citations
  6. 6 Jeroen Joost Bax Netherlands 229k citations
  7. 7 Takashi Taniguchi Japan 227k citations
  8. 8 Peter Libby United States 226k citations
  9. 9 Kai You Wang China 224k citations
  10. 10 Dirk Schadendorf Germany 222k citations

Ranked by citations received across their whole record, among researchers with at least three works on this topic.

What are the most cited papers in Photoacoustic and Ultrasonic Imaging?

The most cited paper in Photoacoustic and Ultrasonic Imaging is "Image Denoising by Sparse 3-D Transform-Domain Collaborative Filtering" (Kostadin Dabov, Alessandro Foi, Vladimir Y. Katkovnik et al., 2007), with 9,395 citations. Next come "Sub-diffraction-limit imaging by stochastic optical reconstruction microscopy (STORM)" (8,412) and "Photoacoustic Tomography: In Vivo Imaging from Organelles to Organs" (4,338).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 Image Denoising by Sparse 3-D Transform-Domain Collaborative Filtering Kostadin Dabov, Alessandro Foi, Vladimir Y. Katkovnik et al. · IEEE Transactions on Image Processing Aug 2007 9,395
2 Sub-diffraction-limit imaging by stochastic optical reconstruction microscopy (STORM) Michael J. Rust, Mark Bates, Xiaowei Zhuang · Nature Methods Open access 9 Aug 2006 8,412
3 Photoacoustic Tomography: In Vivo Imaging from Organelles to Organs Lihong V. Wang, Song Hu · Science Open access 23 Mar 2012 4,338
4 Optical properties of biological tissues: a review Steven L. Jacques · Physics in Medicine and Biology Open access 10 May 2013 4,004
5 Nanoshell-mediated near-infrared thermal therapy of tumors under magnetic resonance guidance Leon R. Hirsch, R. Jason Stafford, James A. Bankson et al. · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Open access 3 Nov 2003 3,953
All 100 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Photoacoustic and Ultrasonic Imaging research done?

The largest centres of Photoacoustic and Ultrasonic Imaging research in 2022-now are Beijing (China), Shanghai (China), Nanjing (China) and Xi'an (China). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Pohang and Nizhny Novgorod.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 BeijingChina 470 works
  2. 2 ShanghaiChina 241 works
  3. 3 NanjingChina 164 works
  4. 4 Xi'anChina 152 works
  5. 5 GuangzhouChina 152 works
  6. 6 ShenzhenChina 141 works
  7. 7 HangzhouChina 114 works
  8. 8 WuhanChina 112 works
  9. 9 ParisFrance 107 works
  10. 10 LondonUnited Kingdom 105 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. PohangKR · 29.9 works15×
  2. Nizhny NovgorodRU · 28.4 works7.9×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Photoacoustic and Ultrasonic Imaging than the world average.

See Photoacoustic and Ultrasonic Imaging on the map

Where is the best place to study Photoacoustic and Ultrasonic Imaging?

Among universities, judged by research, Hunan University, Fudan University and Shenzhen University score highest, combining citation excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%20%40%mean 20.14%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →Hunan UniversityHarbin Institute of …Fudan UniversityShenzhen University
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the first ten of the table below, at the default weights. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

Citation excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged
40%
Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share
10%
Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale
30%
Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%
10%
Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad
10%
Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.
#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1Hunan UniversityChina 66.036.2%2.8×14 +104.9%
2Fudan UniversityChina 63.615.1%4.8×53 +81.0%
3Shenzhen UniversityChina 62.112.3%9.1×47 +64.0%
4Harbin Institute of TechnologyChina 62.017.1%4.2×48 +27.6%
5Harvard UniversityUnited States 60.815.0%2.5×55 -14.5%
6Peking UniversityChina 60.014.3%2.9×41 +57.8%
7Shanghai Jiao Tong UniversityChina 59.717.7%3.1×62 -1.5%
8ETH ZurichSwitzerland 59.616.3%5.9×29 +11.5%
9Pohang University of Science and TechnologySouth Korea 58.923.6%18.1×27 -12.6%
10Guangxi Normal UniversityChina 58.533.8%5.6×8 +63.1%

Universities only. The score blends citation excellence (40%), size (30%), specialisation (10%), growth (10%), international reach (10%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise.

Every institution in Photoacoustic and Ultrasonic Imaging, country by country

Is Photoacoustic and Ultrasonic Imaging research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 3% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2023. The fastest-growing topics are Photoacoustic and Ultrasonic Imaging.

still counting19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon: one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Its share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share: all of science grows. This is Photoacoustic and Ultrasonic Imaging as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.036% in 2024.

still counting0.020%0.040%0.060%Photoacoustic and Ultrasonic Imaging0.032% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Photoacoustic and Ultrasonic Imaging over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Year by year.

still counting5%10%15%Photoacoustic and Ultrasonic Imaging9.8% in 2025200020102020

Of each year's works in it, the share that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. A field is the world for its own topics, so there is no other line to hold it against.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.

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