PHOTOACOUSTIC GENERATION OF FOCUSED QUASI-UNIPOLAR PRESSURE PULSES

The photoacoustic effect was employed to generate short-duration quasi-unipolar acoustic pressure pulses in both planar and spherically focused geometries.In the focal region,the temporal profile of a pressure pulse can be approximated by the first derivative of the temporal profile near the front transducer surface,with a time-averaged value equal to zero.This approximation agreed with experimental results acquired from photoacoustic transducers with both rigid and free boundaries.For a free boundary,the acoustic pressure in the focal region is equal to the sum of a positive pressure that follows the spatial profile of the optical energy deposition in the medium and a negative pressure that follows the temporal profile of the laser pulse.