We present the development of a source of deep-red radiation for photoacoustic imaging. This source, which is based on two cascaded wavelength conversion processes in aperiodically poled lithium niobate, emits 10 nanosecond pulses of over 500 µJ at 710 nm. Photoacoustic images were obtained from phantoms designed to mimic the optical and acoustic properties of oral tissue. Results indicate this device is a viable source of optical pulses for photoacoustic applications.