Theory of photoacoustic effect in media with thermal memory

This paper presents a model for indirect photoacoustic response that includes thermal memory effects. At low frequencies, the model reduces to the well-known thermal piston model of photoacoustic response given by Rosencweig and Gersho. However, at high frequencies, the presented model predicts resonant behavior of amplitudes and phases of photoacoustic response and determines the respective resonant frequencies. The results of the presented model enable experimental determination of standard thermal properties of solids (thermal diffusivity and thermal conductivity), as well as thermal memory properties, thermal relaxation time, and heat propagation speed. (C) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC.