We have developed experimental and analytical methods to measure the anisot
ropic elastic properties of thin supported films. In this approach, surface
acoustic waves (SAWS) were generated using a line-focused laser. Waves wit
h frequency components up to 400 MHz were detected by a Michelson interfero
meter. Dispersion relations for the SAW phase velocity were calculated from
displacement waveforms acquired with source-detector separations of 5-15 m
m. To determine film properties from the dispersion relations, we developed
a new inversion algorithm based on the delta-function representation of th
e fully anisotropic, elastodynamic Green function for wave propagation. Our
methods were first applied to an elastically isotropic aluminium film on a
n isotropic fused silica substrate. The results show the validity of our me
thods and were in good agreement with literature values. The results also i
llustrate various aspects of measurement uncertainty. The same SAW methods
were used to examine a series of titanium nitride films on single-crystalli
ne silicon wafers. The inversion results assuming orthotropic elastic symme
try indicated that c(11) increased and c(13) decreased with increasing film
thickness. Values for the film thickness determined by our analysis were i
n good agreement with destructive measurements of the actual thicknesses.