Laser detection of material thickness

摘要

There is provided a method for measuring material thickness comprising: (a) contacting a surface of a material to be measured with a high intensity short duration laser pulse at a light wavelength which heats the area of contact with the material, thereby creating an acoustical pulse within the material: (b) timing the intervals between deflections in the contacted surface caused by the reverberation of acoustical pulses between the contacted surface and the opposite surface of the material: and (c) determining the thickness of the material by calculating the proportion of the thickness of the material to the measured time intervals between deflections of the contacted surface.