1994/06/01 by Guray Tas, G. Tas, Humphrey J. Maris · 3 citations
Engineering · #Non-Destructive Testing Techniques #Thermography and Photoacoustic Techniques #Ultrasonics and Acoustic Wave Propagation
paper · doi:10.1103/physrevb.49.15046
openalex publication_date 1994/06/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
We have studied the ultrasonic pulses that are generated when a picosecond light pulse is absorbed in a metallic film. The pulse shape is influenced by the distance that the hot electrons diffuse before losing their energy to the lattice. We show that this method can be used to test theories of the electron-phonon and electron-electron scattering rates. The results are in excellent agreement with a calculation in which the nonthermal character of the electron distribution is taken into account.