NUMERICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL STUDIES OF THE GENERATION OF ULTRASOUND BYLASER

We present an analytical 1-D model of the laser generation of ultrasou nd that takes the optical penetration effect and the time profile of t he laser pulse into account. This model leads to simple expressions fo r the time position and width of the precursor. The results of this mo del are compared to experimental data. We also present numerical and e xperimental directivity patterns of samples having various optical pen etration depths.