Method and system for acoustically scanning a sample

An acoustic microscope for scanning a sample, comprising:

• an acoustic transceiver for generating and propagating first acoustic pulses along a propagation direction and detecting second acoustic pulses;
• a rotatable mirror for deflecting the first acoustic pulses, the rotatable mirror being rotatable about a rotation axis being substantially orthogonal to the propagation direction;
• an acoustic lens for focusing the deflected first acoustic pulses in the sample and propagating reflected acoustic pulses reflected by the sample towards the rotatable minor, the reflected acoustic pulses being deflected by the rotatable minor towards the acoustic transceiver to be detected thereby;
• a transmitter controller for controlling the acoustic transceiver and emitting each one of the first acoustic pulses as a function of a respective angular position of the rotatable mirror;
• and
• a mirror controller for rotating the rotatable mirror in order to scan the sample along a scan direction.

A method for acoustically scanning a sample, comprising:

• successively generating a plurality of input acoustic pulses and propagating each input acoustic pulse towards a rotatable mirror along a propagation direction;
• rotating the rotatable mirror about a rotation axis being substantially orthogonal to the propagation direction, thereby deflecting each input acoustic pulse at a respective angular position for the rotatable mirror and obtaining a plurality of deflected acoustic pulses, said rotating allowing to scan a line of the sample;
• and
• for each deflected pulse:
• propagating the deflected input acoustic pulse towards a focusing lens;
• focusing the deflected input acoustic pulse in the sample;
• the acoustic lens collecting an output acoustic pulse reflected by the sample;
• propagating the output acoustic pulse towards the rotatable mirror, thereby deflecting the output acoustic pulse;
• and
• detecting the deflected output pulse at a pulse detector.