Picosecond Photoacoustics Using an Elliptical Acoustic Cell

Abstract

We report the development of a photoacoustic cell in the form of an elliptical cylinder, in which the acoustic impulse generated by a laser beam passing along one focal line is focused onto a cylindrical piezoelectric transducer located along the other focal line. The sensitivity and clean impulse response of this cell will be employed in photoacoustic experiments presently under way using single and multiple groups of picosecond laser pulses.