Spatial sampling of hemispherical arrays for three-dimensional photoacoustic computed tomography

Abstract Three-dimensional (3D) photoacoustic (or optoacoustic) computed tomography (PACT) is a powerful noninvasive biomedical imaging modality that provides volumetric data for structural and functional assessment in vivo. To maximize angular coverage and mitigate limited-view artifacts, modern 3D PACT systems frequently employ hemispherical transducer arrays. While substantial effort has been devoted to improving image quality through post-processing algorithms, the intrinsic impact of the hardware array layout on the baseline image quality remains underexplored. In this study, we investigate how the spatial sampling characteristics of hemispherical array distributions affect imaging performance under fixed hardware constraints. We propose a uniform-spacing sampling criterion to generate three representative array distributions and evaluate their performance using quantitative metrics across static, noise-perturbed, reduced-element, and rotational acquisition scenarios. Across these diverse testing regimes, the Fibonacci distribution consistently demonstrates comparative structural robustness and more globally balanced reconstruction quality, a result we attribute to its highly isotropic sampling properties. These findings demonstrate that an appropriate hardware-level sampling strategy is important for maintaining global reconstruction stability. Ultimately, this framework establishes a benchmarking methodology for hemispherical array distributions and provides practical design guidance for the future development of 3D PACT systems.