Photoacoustic thermorelaxation microscopy for thermal diffusivity measurement

Opt Lett. 2019 Jul 1;44(13):3366-3369. doi: 10.1364/OL.44.003366.

Abstract

Thermal diffusivity is one of the main parameters to characterize the thermo-physical properties of materials, and advances in its measurement technique will have significant impact on materials science and related applications. Here a photoacoustic (PA) thermorelaxation microscopy is proposed as a new noncontact method to measure the thermal diffusivity. By delivering co-focused heating/probing laser pulse pairs with tunable time delays, the sample's in situ thermal relaxation behavior after the heating pulse excitation can be photoacoustically monitored based on the temperature-dependent property of the Grueneisen parameter. We theoretically deduced the dependence of the obtained PA thermorelaxation time on the thermal diffusivity, and the results coincided well with simulations. The feasibility of this method was validated by various industrial and biological samples. This method provides a new strategy for high-resolution thermal diffusivity measurement with flexible measurement conditions, prefiguring great potential for material and biological applications.

MeSH terms

  • Dimethylpolysiloxanes / chemistry
  • Microscopy / methods*
  • Nylons / chemistry
  • Photoacoustic Techniques / methods*
  • Temperature*
  • Thermal Diffusion*

Substances

  • Dimethylpolysiloxanes
  • Nylons
  • poly(dimethylsiloxane)-polyamide copolymer