Acousto-optic imaging (AOI) enables optical-contrast imaging deep inside scattering samples via localized ultrasound modulation of scattered light. However, the resolution in AOI is inherently limited by the ultrasound focus size, prohibiting microscopic investigations. In recent years advances in the field of digital wavefront-shaping allowed the development of novel approaches for overcoming AOI’s acoustic resolution limit. However, these approaches require thousands of wavefront measurements within the sample speckle decorrelation time, limiting their application to static samples. Here, we show that it is possible to surpass the acoustic resolution-limit with a conventional AOI system by exploiting the natural dynamics of speckle decorrelations rather than trying to overcome them. We achieve this by adapting the principles of super-resolution optical fluctuations imaging (SOFI) to AOI. We show that naturally fluctuating optical speckle grains can serve in AOI as the analogues of blinking fluorophores in SOFI, enabling super-resolution by statistical analysis of fluctuating acousto-optic signals.

声光成像（AOI）可以通过对散射光进行局部超声调制，在散射样本的内部进行光学对比成像。但是，AOI中的分辨率固有地受超声焦点大小的限制，从而无法进行微观研究。近年来，数字波前成形领域的进步允许开发克服AOI的声音分辨率极限的新颖方法。但是，这些方法需要在样本散斑去相关时间内进行数千次波前测量，从而将其应用于静态样本。在这里，我们表明，通过利用散斑去相关的自然动力学而不是试图克服它们，有可能超越常规AOI系统的声音分辨率极限。我们通过将超分辨率光学波动成像（SOFI）的原理应用于AOI来实现这一目标。我们表明，自然波动的光学散斑颗粒可以在AOI中用作SOFI中闪烁的荧光团的类似物，通过对波动的声光信号进行统计分析来实现超分辨率。