Thermal Lens Technique as a Potential Optical Tool

The spectroscopic characterization of materials involves the use of various optical tools. Spectrometers, interferometers etc, are some of the examples of optical tools. Thermal lens technique is one of the potential optical tools for the thermal characterization of different materials. The thermal lens effect is a photothermal effect which results when energy from a laser beam is absorbed by a sample, causing heating of the sample along the beam path. In this paper an overview of thermal lensing, its significance as potential optical tool and its applications are discussed. Index Terms: Optical tool, Photothermal spectroscopy, TLS application, Thermal diffusivity