Transient generation by a wide thermoelastic source at a solid surface

A method for computing the radiation from a thermal expansion source, generated at a solid surface by a laser pulse of finite width, is evaluated for two radial beam energy distributions. A theoretical expression for the impulse response is obtained for two components of the displacement at any point within the solid, and may be used to compute the field for an arbitrary time excitation. Numerical results are presented, and are compared to experimental results for generation by a pulsed laser.