Theory for optical detection of picosecond shear acoustic gratings

Abstract

A theoretical formalism describing the heterodyne detection of plane inhomogeneous shear acoustic waves by probe laser-induced gratings is developed. An inhomogeneous plane shear acoustic wave is a purely shear wave with a plane phase front and mechanical displacement vector, which is sinusoidally spatially modulated in magnitude. It could be generated by laser-induced gratings and could be useful for the acoustic testing of sub-micrometer thick membranes and coatings in the gigahertz frequency range. The theory reveals the potential advantages and disadvantages of this wave application in non-destructive testing of materials and fundamental research from the point of view of the feasibility of their experimental detection.

© 2016 Optical Society of America

Jones matrix formalism for the theory of picosecond shear acoustic pulse detection

Denis Mounier, Pascal Picart, Philippe Babilotte, Pascal Ruello, Jean-Marc Breteau, Thomas Pézeril, Gwenaëlle Vaudel, Mansour Kouyaté, and Vitalyi Gusev
Opt. Express 18(7) 6767-6778 (2010)

Picosecond opto-acoustic interferometry and polarimetry in high-index GaAs

A. V. Scherbakov, M. Bombeck, J. V. Jäger, A. S. Salasyuk, T. L. Linnik, V. E. Gusev, D. R. Yakovlev, A. V. Akimov, and M. Bayer
Opt. Express 21(14) 16473-16485 (2013)

Optical detection of acoustic waves with surface plasmons

A. A. Kolomenskii, E. Surovic, and H. A. Schuessler
Appl. Opt. 57(20) 5604-5613 (2018)

Enhanced detection of acoustic waves using thick and thin reference gratings

R. Magnusson and T. D. Black
J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 4(3) 498-502 (1987)

Optical heterodyne detection of laser-induced gratings

A. A. Maznev, K. A. Nelson, and J. A. Rogers
Opt. Lett. 23(16) 1319-1321 (1998)