Characteristics of fiber-optic photoacoustic transducers with monolayer of metal nanoparticles for systems of technical diagnostics

The work is devoted to the experimental study of the microstructural and morphological properties of nanostructures as part of a prototype of fiber-optic photoacoustic transducer. The transducer has been created to confirm the theoretical investigations previously obtained by the authors during the study the conditions of the most effective photoacoustic gene ration. To solve the main problem that arises when creating photoacoustic transducers, namely reducing the thickness of the absorbing layer, we used a nanostructure based on a monolayer of silver nanoparticles with size gamma-distribution, the average diameter of 35 nm with RMS-size of 12 nm. The method of simultaneous measuring both efficiency of photoacoustic conversion and frequency response of a photoacoustic transducer is proposed for the first time. The method allows experimental investigation of transduces output parameters versus the modulation mode of the optical signal. The proposed method is based on the usage of the main measurement channel for irradiating the photoacoustic transducer and a reference channel based on fiber optical coupler and photodiode. The experiment shows the reliable generation of ultrasound at frequencies of 10 –18 MHz with a prototype of photoacoustic transducer. During one hour irradiation, degradation of two-dimensional surface nanostructures has not been observed. This allows such type of photoacoustic transducer to be used as part of a new generation of technical diagnostics systems.