Laser generation of convergent

acoustic waves for materials

inspection
P. CIELO, F. NADEAU and M. LAMONTAGNE

A laser technique for generating convergent acoustic waves is described. The

optically probed Rayleigh wave in the centre of convergence shows an
amplification factor of the order of 20 with respect to a collimated surface wave.
Applications to the ultrasonic characterization of layered materials and to crack
detection are described.

KEYWORDS: ultrasonic testing, lasers, surface acoustic waves

Introduction to the probed point without spread losses. Such a wave

can be generated by focusing the laser to a thin line
Laser generation of ultrasound’,* is an attractive through the use of a cylindrical lensg. It should be
technique because it requires no contact with the mentioned that this line-source technique is more
inspected material. Applications of such a technique to convenient than the disc-source not only because it
non-destructive testin$-s and to high-temperature avoids spread losses, but also because it produces a
materials characterization’j*’ have been reported. To higher-frequency surface wave without overheating the
take most advantage of the non-contact nature of this surface. Indeed, the wavelength of the surface wave is
method, laser interferometers should also be used for nearly equal to twice the width of the line if the laser
the detection of the generated wave. Laser ultrasound pulse is shorter than the Rayleigh wave transmit time.
probes have several advantages compared to contact
devices: they can be absolutely calibrated have a wide A natural extension of the line-source technique is the
and flat frequency response, do not perturb the converging-wave configuration shown in Fig. 1~‘~. In
ultrasonic wave to be detected, and have a spot size this case a thin, annular-shaped heated area produces
that is much smaller than the ultrasonic wavelength to a wave converging towards the detection point. This
be probed. The latter consideration is important when technique takes full advantage of the very small spot
a surface wave or a non-normally incident bulk wave size of the probing interferometer as compared to more
must be detected. The main limitation of laser sensitive but wider ultrasonic probes such as the
interferometers is their limited sensitivity compared to piezoelectric or capacitive transducers. A similar
piezoelectric transducers. concept has been presented in a recent paper” where a
water-immersed holographic mask was laser-irradiated
Attempts have been made to increase the laser- to produce a high-intensity focused ultrasonic beam
ultrasound conversion efficiency to obtain larger without overheating the laser-irradiated area This
ultrasound pulses without reaching the surface- approach has some similarity with the modulated-
damaging ablation regime. The use of constraining beam generation of surface waves through a mask’*.
layer? increases substantially the generation efficiency Although interesting for medical diagnostics and
of bulk waves in the thermoelastic regime. Unfortun- immersion-bath ultrasonic inspection, this technique
ately, the requirement for surface layers is not always appears to be hardly applicable to non-contact fast
compatible with quick and non-contact industrial scanning ndt of solid materials.
inspection procedures.
In this paper, a simple technique using a focused
The other approach to increase the signal level is to axicon is described for the generation of a converging
control the directional properties of the laser-generated surface wave. The interferometrically detected
ultrasonic wave. Fig. 1 illustrates this concept in the ultrasonic wave at the centre of convergence shows an
case of a thermoelastically-generated surface wave. In increase in the signal level by a factor of 20 with
Fig. la. a disc-shaped laser-heated area produces a respect to a line-source produced wave with equal
surface wave which spreads two-dimensionally over the surface heating. Some applications to the non-
surface, and is detected by a focused probing beam at a destructive inspection of solid materials are also
certain distance from the generation area. Fig 1b presented.
shows a nearly-collimated surface wave which travels
Experimental apparatus
The authors are at the Industrial Materials Research Institute, National
Research Council of Canada, Boucherville. Quebec, Canada, J4B 6Y4.
A schematic of the experimental system is shown in
Paper recewed 26 March 1984. Remed 24 October 1984. Fig 2. A multimode Nd:YAG laser, giving typically

0041-624X/85/020055X)8/$03.00 0 1985 Butterworth 8 Co (Publishers) Ltd

ULTRASONICS. MARCH 1985 55
 telescope decreases the beam divergence by an amount
equal to its magnification; this was required to obtain a
sufficiently narrow annulus with a multimode laser
beam and a lens-to-surface focusing distance of almost
1 m.
The surface wave is detected in the centre of the
annulus by a HeNe interferometer focused on the
roughly polished surface of the aluminium sample
through a HeNe-reflecting YAG-transmitting dichroic
mirror. The interferometer is locked to an average
path-difference of (n + 1/4)X by applying a slowly
varying correcting voltage on the piezoelectrically
a controlled reference mirrorr3,r4. In such a case, the
detected intensity can be written:

(1)
Probed point

where Z,, is the average intensity incident on the

detector, I r is the peak-to-peak intensity variation
Heated area - / obtained t%r a path-difference variation larger than x/2,
and X = 633 nm is the HeNe wavelength. As the
ultrasonic surface displacement Ax is much smaller
than X, we can write from (1):

Ax1:gL,looa” VPP [nml (2)

IPP 27
b
where AV and V are the oscilloscope displayed
voltages produce “Bby the detected intensities AI and I,,
respectively. Such an expression is used to calibrate
d point absolutely the interferometer by measuring the
maximum signal fluctuation VPp obtained with a large
displacement of the reference mirror.
The sensitivity of the interferometer is of approximately
0.02 nm with a bandwidth B = 30 MHz. This is not far
from the quantum limit obtained by comparing the
photocurrent signal:

Is = rlU = qIpp Ax2nlX (3)

Fig. 1 Thermoelastic generation of: a - diverging surface acoustic wave; where n = 0.4 A W-l is the detector efficiency. with the
b - a collimated wave; and c - a converging wave
shot noise of the photodiode”~‘?

i, = (2rqIc,B)1’Z (4)

where e = 1.6 X lo-l9 C is the electronic charge. The

minimum detectable displacement is obtained by
equating (3) and (4):

Ax _ (2 e M9’/* x
Tp I PP z;;
Fig. 2 Experimental apparatus for the laser generation and detection of
converging surface waves. The inset shows a photo of the YAG annulus which gives AX = 0.008 nm for I,, = I,42 = 1 mW. The
on the sample plane
additional noise that we observe is attributed to laser
noise” as well as to a reduction in the Ipr,/l,, ratio
15 ns, 0.1 J pulses, is expanded by a Galilean telescope
caused by the spatial coherence loss of the reflected
and focused through a positive axicon on the surface of
beamIs.
the sample, where it produces a 15 mm diameter, 0.2 mm
wide annulus. The diameter of the annulus can be The annular laser pulse produces a convergent as well
varied by displacing the axicon longitudinally. The as a divergent Rayleigh wave, whose vertical displace-

56 ULTRASONICS. MARCH 1985

ment on the surface can be represented for r Z 0 by a
superposition of continuous annular wavesL9:
5
U, = Ho&r) exp(iwt) (6)

where H,, is a Hankel function of the first kind for the

converging wave, and of the second kind for the diver- z 0
ging wave, k is the wavenumber, x the distance from
the centre of the annulus, o the angular frequency and
r the time. Except for the small values of r, for which
(6) is not valid the convergent waves can be approxi- -5
mated using the asymptotic formulae for the Bessel 1
functions:
a
u,(r -+ -) = (2/nkr)‘h exp[i(kr + wt - n/4)] (7)

showing that the amplitude of the annular wave is

expected to vary as fY2 for large values of r.
The amplitude variation of the converging pulse was
experimentally recorded over a line passing through I

3
the centre of the annulus by angularly scanning the
dichroic mirror shown in Fig. 2. The peak-to-peak
amplitude of the detected surface wave is plotted in
Fig. 3 as a function of the distance r to the centre. As 0
we can see, the amplitude of the detected wave is very
large in the centre, while for r > 0.5 mm the curve
shows a gradual decay in agreement with (7). The
amplitude of the wave near the border of the annulus, -I
r z 7 mm, corresponds to the amplitude of a
collimated surface wave as generated by a line-source
heating the surface to the same temperature. As such b

0.5

z O

-0.5

I I I I I
t I I I I I
I 2 3 6
Time4 [r-s] 5

Fig. 4 Waveforms of some signals reported in Fig. 3: a - r = 0;

b--r=0.5 mm; c- r=2 mm

an amplitude is of nearly 0.4 nm, we can conclude that

the signal obtained in the centre of a converging wave
is amplified by a factor of more than 20 with respect to
the one obtained with a line-source of equal power
density. The positioning accuracy required to point the
0 2 4 6 8 IO 12 HeNe probing beam at the centre of the annulus is of
the order of the annulus width, 0.2 mm.
Distance from centre [mm]
Fig. 3 Amplitude of the detected surface wave as a function of the
Figure 4 shows some typical signals obtained (a) in the
distance r from the centre of convergence centre, (b) at 0.5 mm and (c) at 2 mm from the centre.

ULTRASONICS. MARCH 1985 57

In the centre, a strong dipolar pulse is obtained with a
shape similar to the one previously observed in the
thermoelastic regime (see Ref. 2, Fig 19b). Out of the
centre, the two pulses coming from the two sides of the
annulus are resolved when the distance between the
centre of the annulus and the probed point is larger
than the pulse duration. As can be appreciated from
Fig 4c, the two pulses have different shapes. The
converging pulse is unipolar while the diverging pulse is
dipolar. Although not fully understood this behaviour
appears to be related to the different focusing
conditions in front and behind the pulse for the
converging and diverging waves. Also, note the
presence of a P-wave2 after a time corresponding to the
longitudinal wave velocity in the aluminium sample.
Applications to materials inspection
Some examples of possible applications of the
convergent-wave technique to the non-destructive
evaluation of materials are described in this section.
The list is by no means exhaustive, while no effort was
made in the experimental demonstrations to reach the
ultimate sensitivity of such a technique.
The convergent-wave technique is well suited to
materials characterization through a measure of the
acoustic surface-wave velocity on flat or spherical
surfaces. A large number of investigations have been
reported for the characterization of materials’
properties such as alloy composition, microstructure or
residual stress using bulk acoustic waves on parallel
plates of known thickness. A much smaller amount of
work has been done using surface waves. in spite of the
unique suitability of surface waves to measure
properties such as hydrogen entry in metalsZo or glass
ternpeP.
One reason for this is the difficulty to couple and
detect surface waves efficiently using liquid-coupled
transducers, given the strong attenuation suffered by
such waves when a liquid film is present along the
surface-wave path. Critical angle reflectometry** has
often been used to overcome this problem, but this
technique is time-consuming and requires the
immersion of the sample.
The laser-generated convergent-wave technique would
provide a fast and non-contact alternative to such
methods. The surface-wave velocity can be obtained in
homogeneous materials through time-of-flight measure-
ments from signals of the kind shown in Fig 4a. The
resolution is of the order of the 5 ns sampling period
leading to an accuracy of the order of + 0.1 %I for an
annulus of 30 mm in diameter.
An application of such a technique to the characteri-
zation of electroplated materials is described in this
paper. Ag- and Cr-plated copper samples with different
coating thicknesses were inspected using laser-genera-
ted convergent surface waves. It is well known23 that
materials coated with layers of different acoustic pro-
perties are frequency-dispersive when the acoustic
wavelength is of the same order of magnitude as the
coating thickness. The thickness or the acoustic proper-
ties of the coating layer can thus be evaluated by
measuring the surface wave velocity at different
frequenciesZ4sZ5. Non-contact, single-shot probing of
laser-generated surface waves for such an application
an attractive possibility.
Some typical waveforms obtained at the centre of the
58
laser-generated converging wave on electroplated
copper samples with different coating thicknesses are
shown in Fig. 5. The dispersive effect of the coating
becomes increasingly evident as the coating thickness
is increased. The temporal delay of the high-frequency
components with respect to the low-frequency main
pulse in the Ag-plated sample is apparent in Fig. 5c.
while in the thick Cr-plated sample, Fig. Sf. the high
frequencies precede the main pulse. This was expected
because the short wavelengths tend to propagate
mainly within the coating which has an acoustic
velocity lower than the substrate in the case of the Ag-
plated sample. and higher than the substrate in the
case of the Cr-plated samples.
Such a dispersive effect is accompanied by a slight
variation in the time-of-flight of the main pulse. as
shown in Fig. 6. In this figure, the relative time-of-flight
of the main negative pulse is plotted as a function of
the coating thickness. A time-of-flight measurement
may thus be used as a parameter for the evaluation of
the coating thickness, particularly for coatings that arc
thin with respect to the main pulse wavelength. Best
results should however be obtained by time-resolved
spectroscopic techniqueP. which would take full
advantage of the flat frequency response of the optical
probe and of the wide frequency bandwidth of the
laser-generated pulse.
Crack inspection is another typical application of
ultrasonics. Techniques reported in this field in the
past include scattered amplitude methods. bulk-wave
and surface-wave timing methods and ultrasonic
spectroscopy analysi?‘. Some experiments have been
performed to explore the suitability of the convergcnt-
wave technique to crack inspection. A crack was
simulated with a I mm deep. 0.1 mm wide eloctro-
discharge machined slot across the surface of the
sample. Fig. 7 shows the waveforms obtained in the
case of an out-of-centre probe and different
configurations.
As expected, the divergent-wave pulse disappears when
the slot is on the other side of the probe with respect to
the centre (Fig. 7b) while the convergent-wave
disappears when the slot is on the same side as the
probe (Fig 7~). Also, note the small pulse reflection
from the slot in Fig. 7c. It should be mentioned that
while the reflection from a real, irregular crack would
be much less visible than with a regular EDM slot, the
transmission technique proposed here should not be
affected by the shape and orientation of the crack Fig.
7d shows that the converging-wave pulse is barely
affected by the preence of a 0.1 mm deep slot. showing
that a certain amount of crack depth evaluation is
possible by simply observing the signal. Better
sensitivity should be obtainable by using more
elaborate signal processing methods. such as
transmission Rayleigh-wave spectroscopy28,*9
Finally. the advantages of the convergent-wave
technique over the spot heating approach in the pulse-
echo testing of adhesively-bonded plates has been
examined. A 4 mm thick aluminium plate epoxy-
bonded to a massive aluminium substrate was
inspected using different beam geometries. Fig. 8 shows
some typical waveforms. Figs 8a to 8d were obtained
by spot heating while Figs Xc and 8f correspond to
is
annular heating. Figs Xa to Xc were obtained on an
unbonded region. while Fig. Xf was obtained on a well-
bonded region. Figs 8a and 8b correspond to the case
ULTRASONICS. MARCH 1985
 2

Eo

-2
I

Fig. 5 Waveforms obtained tn the centre of a 1.5 cm dwneter annulus for an electroplated copper sample: a - bare sample; b - 20 pm thick Ag
coating; c - 60 pm thick Ag coating; d - 7.5 pm thick Cr coating; e - 15 pm thick Cr coating; f - 40 pm thick Cr coating

ULTRASONICS. MARCH 1985 59

 ultrasonic inspection is presented in this paper. The
main advantages of such an approach are the obten-
tion of a large ultrasonic amplitude in the centre of the
converging wave, as well as the possibility to obtain
short, high-frequency pulses without overheating the
surface. Some applications to the detection of surface
defects and to the evaluation of layered materials are
described.

Acknowledgements
The authors wish to thank Prof. G.W. Farnell and
Drs C.K. Jen and D.A. Hutchins for helpful
discussions.

References
0.98 White, RM. Generation of Elastic Waves by Transient
Surface Heating, J: Appl. Phys. 12 (1963) 3559
Scruby, C.B., Dewhurst, R.J., Hutchins, D.A., Palmer, S.B.
Laser Generation of Ultrasound in Metals. in Research
Techniques in NDT, RS. Sharpe (Ed), Vol. 5. Academic
Press, London (1982)
Krautkramer, J. Unconventional Methods of Generating
0.94 t Coupling and Receiving Ultrasound in NDT, 9th World
0 IO 20 30 40 50 Conf. NDT. Melbourne (1979)
Coating thickness km]

Fig. 6 Relative time-of-flight of the negative pulse as measured from the

waveforms of the kind shown in Fig. 5 as a function of the coatmg
thickness, for the Ag and Cr electroplated samples Probed point
\

when the probing HeNe laser is pointed in the centre

of the heated area, with (a) or without (b) plasma
breakdown at the irradiated surface. As we can see. the
eventual pulse echo is overshadowed by either the

\
plasma turbulence or the thermal expansion in the
Heated annulus
solid and in the adjacent air layer. It should also be

[1
noted that the laser-generation efficiency of a
I mmslot
longitudinal and shear waves in the thermoelastic
regime is maximum in a direction far from the
normaP. ye-- \
Figures 8c and d show two waveforms obtained when 1’
the HeNe beam is pointed outside of the 1 mm x*
i
diameter disc-shaped heated area, at a distance of \ ,’
\
2 mm (c) and 8 mm (d) from the centre of the heating ‘A__ 0’
YAG beam. A weak plasma was produced by the YAG
pulse in such cases. The broad Rayleigh (R) wave can b
clearly be seen in the two waveforms, with a
superposed random modulation which is attributed to
the presence of ‘hot spots’ in the multimode YAG
beam. The air-propagated pressure wave is also
apparent in Fig. 8c.
As to the longitudinal (L) and shear (S) echoes from
the unbonded surface, they are more visible in Fig. Sd,
as expected from the angular distribution of the
generated bulk waves*, but they are weak and
overshadowed by the plasma- and modal structure-
produced noise. Figs 8e and f correspond to the
annular configuration previously described in this
paper. on an unbonded (e) and well-bonded (f) region
of the plate. The complete absence of plasma, as well
as the narrowness of the acoustic pulses. allow a more
consistent evaluation of the reflected longitudinal and
shear echoes. It should also be noted that a repetitive
Rayleigh pulse provides a reference for the evaluation
of the absorptivity-dependent heating energy density. d

Fig. 7 Waveforms obtained on an alumlnlum sample in the presence of

Conclusion an EDM slot, wth an out-of-centre probe; a - no slot; b - 1 mm deep
slot on the opposite side of the probe; c - 1 mm deep slot on the same
A converging-wave approach to laser-generated side as the probe; d - 0.1 mm deep slot on the same side as the probe

60 ULTRASONICS. MARCH 1985

 4mm

:;I
YAG F
--._ t
He-P&?
.

__--+

I I a

% 0

.
-2
I

YAG
--__v

1
-*
_--- _-I I

5
He-Ne \

-Qk /
z 0
%z \
4
--_ --_, -5
/
L

__-- _. c

Fig. 8 Pulse-echo waveforms obtained with different beam geometries on a partially-bonded 4 mm thick Al plate: a - and b - concentrated YAG beam
superposed to the probing beam. with and without plasma respectively; c - and d - concentrated YAG beam, probing beam at 2 mm and 8 mm from the
heated area, respectively; e - and f - annular YAG beam, on an unbended and well-bonded area, respectively

4 Wellman, R.L Laser System for the Detection of Flaws in I4 Kline,RA., Green, R.E., Palmer, C.H. A comparison of
Solids, Harry Diamond Laboratories Rept. HDl-TR-1902, optically and piezoelectrically sensed acoustic emission
Adelphi, MD (1980) signal, J Acoust. Sot. Am 64 (1978) 1633
5 Bar-Cohen, Y. NDT of Microwelds Using Laser-Induced I5 Moss, G.E., Miller, LR, Forward, RL Photon-noise-
Shock Waves. Brir. J NDT 21 (1979) 76 limited Laser Transducer for Gravitational Antenna. Appl
6 Pope, LE., Rhode, RW., Percival, C.M. Elevated Oat 10 (1971) 2495
Temperature Elastic Constants of Fe-30 wt. pet. Ni in 16 Palmer, C.H.; Claus, R.O., Fick, S.E. Ultrasonic Wave
Ausenitic and Martensitic Conditions, Metall Trans., 7A Measurement bv Differential Interferometry. App.! Opt 16
(1976) 103 (1977) 1849 .
7 Calder, C.A. Dranex, E.C., Wilcox, W.W. Non-Contact 17 Cole, J.H. Low-frequency Laser Noise of Several
Measurement of the Elastic Constants of Plutonium at Commercial Lasers, Appl Opt (1980) 1023
Elevated Temperatures. 1 Nucl. Mater. 97 (1981) 126 18 Cielo, P. Optical Detection of Acoustic Waves for the
8 Von Gutfeld, R.J. Thermoelastic Generation of Elastic Waves Characterization of Materials with Unpolished Surfaces,
for NDT and Medical Diagnostics. Ultrasonics 18 (1980) 175 102 nd Acoust. Sot. Am. Meetine Miami. (Dec. l-4, 1981)
9 Aindow, A.M., Dewhurst, R.J., Palmer, S.B. Laser-generation 19 Day, C.K., Koerber, G.G. Annular Piezoelectric Surface
of Directional Surface Acoustic Wave Pulses in Metals. Opt Waves. ILEE Tram Sonics Ultrasonics SU-19 (1972) 461
Comm. 42 (1982) 116 20 Lumarska, E., Fiore, N. Surface Acoustic Wave Studies of
10 Cielo, P., Bussiere, J. Efficient Laser Generation of Surface Hydrogen Entry Into a Ni-base Alloy, J Appl. Phys 52 (1981)
Acoustic Waves, US Pat. Appln. 454. 094 (1982) 2587
11 Von Gutfeld, RJ., Vigliotti, D.R, Ih, C.S., Scott, W.R. 21 Warren, J.M. Non-destructive Measurement of Plate Glass
Thermoelastic Hologram for Focused Ultrasound, Appl. Phys Temper. 12th Symp. NDE. San Antonio (1979)
Left 42 (1983) 1018 22 Weston-Bartholomew, W. A Possible Method of Detecting
12 Ash, E.A., Dieulesaint, E., Rakouth, H. Generation of Surface Incipient Creep in Engineering Materials. Int Adv. NDE, 7
Acoustic Waves by Means of a CW Laser. Electron. Letc 16 (1981) 57
(1980) 460 23 Farnell, G.W., Alder, E.L. Elastic Wave Propagation in Thin
13 Deferrari, H.A., Darby, R.A., Andrews, F.A. Vibrational Layers in Physical Acoustics, W.P. Mason and RN. Thurston
displacement and mode-shape measurement by a laser (Eds) Academic Press, New York (1972)
interferometer, J Acoust. SK Am 42 (1967) 982 24 Martin, B.G., Becker, F.L. The Effect of Near-Surface

ULTRASONICS. MARCH 1985 61

 Metallic-Property Gradients on Ultrasonic Critical-Angle 27 Doyle, P.A., Scala, C.M. Crack Depth Measurement by
Reflectivitv . Mater Eval 38 (1980) 92 Ultrasonics: A Review, Ulrrasonin 16 (197X) I64
25 Flambard, C., Lambert, A. Mesure’ Non-Destructive des 2X Silk, M.G. The Determination of Crack Penetration Using
Profondeurs de Traitement Thermique, MN: Mare,: Elan Ultrasonic Surface Waves. N/)T Intern. 9 (1976) 290
317 (1976) 25 29 Burger, C.P., Testa, A. Rayleigh-Wave Spectroscopy to
26 Brown, A.F. Ultrasonic Spectroscopy in NDT. Sci Prog. O_x-f: Measure the Depth of Surface Cracks. 13th Symp. on NDE.
65 (1978) 51 San Antonio (1981)

62 ULTRASONICS. MARCH 1985