Abstract
Ultrasound-modulated optical tomography (UOT) is a technique that images optical contrast deep inside scattering media. Heterodyne holography is a promising tool able to detect the UOT tagged photons with high efficiency. In this work, we describe theoretically the detection of the tagged photon in heterodyne holography based UOT, show how to filter the untagged photon discuss, and discuss the effect of speckle decorrelation. We show that optimal detection sensitivity can obtain, if the frame exposure time is of the order of the decorrelation time.