NAG, Date: 2005/11/23 - 2005/11/23, Location: Utrecht
NAG Journaal
Author:
Abstract:
This paper briefly introduces the physics behind photoacoustic (listening to light) and acousto-optic (looking at sound) phenomena and describes several applications for fundamental or applied material research. The exploitation of a photoacoustic cell for the thermal characterization and depth profiling of liquid crystals is illustrated. It is illustrated that a photoacoustic cell can be used to study the magnetocaloric effect, and thus to investigate thermal and magnetic material properties. It is shown that optically excited and detected acoustic waves in materials can be very helpful to investigate their microscopic structure. In the impulsive stimulated scattering technique the mechanisms of converting light into thermal, acoustic, orientational and structural modes is exploited to simultaneously obtain information about the many physical properties of relaxing liquids.