• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2003.04a
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• pp.1395-1400
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• 2003

This paper introduces a novel scheme for determining the thermal diffusivity of solids using the photothermal mirage technique. The suggested scheme extends the thermal-wave coupling method, employing the solution to the heat conduction equation in close proximity to the pump beam. Therefore, determination of thermal diffusivity is possible by detecting the mirage signal with small separation between the probe and pump beams, with enhanced intensity of the mirage signal. Though the method requires information about the probe-beam height, the absolute transverse position of the probe beam need not be known as it is automatically evaluated by the iterative-computation procedure. The thermal diffusivity of Ni is measured by the proposed scheme and the result demonstrates good agreement with the literature value to within 5 %.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.27 no.9
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• pp.1220-1228
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• 2003

The mirage technique is proved to be powerful in measuring the thermal diffusivity of materials. In particular, its contactless nature makes it suitable for delicate samples and microscale structures. In this study, thermal-wave-coupling method is developed in a general form for both thermally thin and thick samples. In the suggested measuring scheme, the probe beam can be positioned close to the pump beam and the absolute position need not be measured. Therefore the new scheme provides a relatively simple yet effective way to determine the thermal diffusivity of thermally thick samples. Thermal diffusivities of bulk samples like Ni and Al were measured and the characteristics of mirage signal for a thin film were observed by using the mirage experimental setup. The apparent thermal diffusivity was measured by varying such parameters as probe beam height, size of pump beam, power of pump beam, and surface condition of sample. From the practical standpoint, it is shown that the size of the pump beam is the most important factor for accurate thermaldiffusivity measurement. Experiments using thin-film samples show that the thermal diffusivity of a substrate covered with thin film can be measured by photothermal mirage signals.