Abstract In medical ultrasound imaging using microbubbles (MBs), the nonlinear echoes from the MBs are used for contrast-specific image construction. Techniques such as pulse inversion, amplitude modulation, and the combined method (PIAM) are employed to increase nonlinear components in the echoes. In addition, employment of pulse compression using binary-coded ultrasound can potentially increase the components. In the case of the nonlinear echo, however, a nonlinear sidelobe occurs around the compressed pulse (correlation peak), and nonlinear components for PIAM in the correlation peak are reduced. The shape of the nonlinear sidelobe and the nonlinear-component reduction in the correlation peak can be estimated from the binary codes used. In this study, the optimal binary codes for PIAM are determined from all patterns of 10, 16, and 20 bit Golay codes. Then, the performance of PIAM with pulse compression using each code is evaluated via computer simulations and experiments using the SonoVue MBs.