Laser induced thermoelastic surface displacement in solids detected simultaneously by photothermal mirror and interferometry.

Abstract

We propose a combined pump-probe optical method to investigate heat diffusion properties of solids. We demonstrate single-shot simultaneous laser-induced thermoelastic surface displacement of metals detected by concurrent measurements using photothermal mirror and interferometry. Both methods probe the surface displacement by analyzing the wavefront distortions of the probe beams reflected from the surface of the sample. Thermoelastic properties are retrieved by transient analysis in combination with numerical description of the thermoelastic displacement and temperature rise in the sample and in the surrounding air. This technique presents a capability for material characterization that can be extended to experiments for quantitative surface mapping.