Heating of a sample with a laser pulse

Abstract

The transient temperature associated with the bulk absorption of a rectangular laser pulse in a solidstate sample of finite size is calculated analytically and analyzed. Radiation is incident on the frontal surface with an arbitrary surface thermal conductivity. The opposite surface is thermostatically controlled and maintained at a constant equilibrium temperature. The general solution is obtained for pulses of arbitrary duration. The pulse duration is determined with respect to the relaxation time of the nonstationary thermal diffusion (it is the characteristic time of the problem). The limiting cases of the adiabatic insulation and isothermal contact at the frontal surface are considered, and the criteria for surface and bulk light absorption are derived for both cases. The temperature distributions are numerically simulated and examined for long and short pulses, as well as for different values of the light absorption coefficient and the surface thermal conductivity of the frontal surface.