Abstract
Investigation of thin metallic film properties by means of picosecond ultrasonics has been under the scope of several studies. Generation of longitudinal and shear waves with a wave vector normal to the film free surface has been demonstrated. Such measurements can not provide complete information about properties of anisotropic films. Acute focusing of the laser pump beam (≈ 0.5 µm) on the sample surface has recently allowed us to provide evidence of picosecond acoustic diffraction in thin metallic films (≈1 µm) such as aluminum, gold, copper. Waveforms have been experimentally recorded in a gold layer (2 µm thick) for several distances between pump and probe on the sample surface. Due to acoustic diffraction, the acoustic wavefronts propagate at a group velocity which differs from phase velocity in the anisotropic film. However, a specified signal processing allows us analyzing the space repartition of the acoustic wave-vectors for both longitudinal and shear waves. Four stiffness coefficients of the anisotropic gold layer could thus be recovered accurately, demonstrating the feasibility of the measurement.
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