Calculation of the Photothermal and Photoacoustic Response at the Sample Surface Irradiated by Short UV Laser Pulses

An extension of the mathematical treatment of the thermal, elastic, and acoustic material response is given for uv interaction using short laser pulses. This calculation includes mechanical as well as thermal inertia of the system and illustrates the deviation of the results utilizing the parabolic heat equation only. For certain suggested photothermal detection techniques relevant signal quantities are calculated, hence, approximating both thermal and acoustic contributions in such phenomena as laser induced ablation, damage resistivity, incubation, and conditioning effects in optical coatings for a pulse range of 100 ns to 10 ps.