AN ATTEMPT TOWARDS QUANTITATIVE PHOTOTHERMAL MICROSCOPY

Based on the description of photothermal image formation as a convolut ion between a defect distribution and the photothermal point spread fu nction, a technique is presented by which subsurface thermal inhomogen eities can be quantitatively reconstructed from photothermal images. N umerical simulations demonstrate the performance and the limits of the suggested approach. Experimental results obtained from a low thermal contrast sample are presented and compared with the theory. (C) 1995 A merican Institute of Physics.