Radiation acoustics—photoacoustics and acousto‐optics of penetrating radiation

Abstract

Photoacoustics is a science about optical generation of sound in a substance. The study of light diffraction by acoustic waves is the subject of acousto‐optics. Light is a beam of particles, i.e., photons. In this connection the study of sound generation by beams of electrons, protons, neutrons, and other particles in a substance, as well as the study of matter waves’ (particle beams) diffraction by ultrasound may be considered correspondingly as photoacoustics and acousto‐optics of penetrating radiation. Combined together, this is the field which got the name of radiation acoustics. It develops at the interface of acoustics, nuclear physics, solid state physics, and physics of high energy and elementary particles [see L. M. Lyamshev, Radiation Acoustics (Nauka‐Fizmatgiz, Moscow, 1996), in Russian]. Some universal laws characterizing generation of sound by beams of penetrating radiation are discussed. The problem of acoustic–radiational interaction is considered using the examples of diffraction of x rays and thermal neutrons by ultrasound in solids. [Work supported by RFBR.]