Photothermal methods : application to diamond, aluminium nitride and zirconia

Photothermal methods have turned out to be a very interesting way to carry out the study of complex materials such as functional ceramics (polycrystal line diamond - aluminium nitride zirconia) whose thermal properties have to be determined at different spatial scales if one wants to optimize their t hermal behaviour. Results at microscopic scales (diffusivity at the scale o f one single grain and thermal barriers at grain boundaries) and at macrosc opic scales (averaged value of the diffusivity on a large number of grains and interfaces) are presented.