Authors
Abstract
In this paper we present a detailed theoretical treatment of the 3-D temperature distribution induced by laser beam in photothermal displacement spectroscopy. We assume that a solid sample, which is deposited on a substrate and is in contact with a fluid, is irradiated by an intensity modulated cw laser source. By using a technique based on Greens function and integral transformations we find the explicit expression for temperature distribution function. This function which depends on the properties of the laser beam and optical an thermal properties of the sample, the substrate and the fluid, exhibits the characteristics of a damped thermal wave. Numerical analysis of the temperature distribution for a certain sample (GaAs) reveals that the behavior of thermal wave is not so sensitive with respect to the variation of the modulation frequency. On the other hand, we find that the temperature of the sample surface decreases with increasing modulation frequency because of the thermal inertia of the sample. Furthermore, the effective thermal length decreases with increasing modulation frequency, thereby making the decay of photothermal signal faster.
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