Laser ultrasonic microscopy

As the field of laser ultrasonics has matured over the past decade, our main focus has been on developing techniques for characterising materials in ever-finer detail, in terms of both spatial resolution and information content. We have worked to improve both the instrumentation and our understanding of the interactions between light, sound and material properties. This effort results in a range of techniques at different stages of maturity, tied by the theme of laser ultrasonic microscopy; that is imaging the interaction between optically excited and detected ultrasonic waves, and the material under inspection. This paper is a review of the work done so far.