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arXiv · 1306.0641

Detection of shorter-than-skin-depth acoustic pulses in a metal film via transient reflectivity

K. J. Manke·A. A. Maznev·C. Klieber·V. Shalagatskyi·V. V. Temnov·D. Makarov·S. -H. Baek·C. -B. Eom·K. A. Nelson
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Abstract

The detection of ultrashort laser-generated acoustic pulses at a metal surface and the reconstruction of the acoustic strain profile are investigated. A 2 ps-long acoustic pulse generated in an SrRuO$_{3}$ layer propagates through an adjacent gold layer and is detected at its surface by a reflected probe pulse. We show that the intricate shape of the transient reflectivity waveform and the ability to resolve acoustic pulses shorter than the optical skin depth are controlled by a single parameter, which is determined by the ratio of the real and imaginary parts of the photoelastic constant of the material. We also demonstrate a Fourier transform-based algorithm that can be used to extract acoustic strain profiles from transient reflectivity measurements.

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K. J. Manke, A. A. Maznev, C. Klieber, V. Shalagatskyi, V. V. Temnov, D. Makarov, S. -H. Baek, C. -B. Eom, K. A. Nelson. 2013-06-04. Detection of shorter-than-skin-depth acoustic pulses in a metal film via transient reflectivity. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4826210

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