Devices and methods for photoacoustic tomography are disclosed herein. One exemplary photoacoustic tomography device uses a laser to produce acoustic waves in a sample. A transducer receives the acoustic waves through a slit formed by one or more blades positioned substantially parallel to the receiving aperture of the transducer. An acoustic absorber is affixed to each of the one or more blades along a surface proximal to the transducer. A processor acquires acoustic data and reconstructs photoacoustic tomographic images based on the acquired data. Reconstructing the image involves setting reconstruction parameters, defining a reconstruction area, reconstruction position, and pixel size, and calculating an acoustic travelling path for the sample to each transducer element. The acoustic travelling paths are saved into a three-dimensional array.
