ABSTRACT
The last decade has witnessed a rapid expansion of the
science of photoacoustics (PA), photothermal (PT), and
related phenomena (Bicanic, 1998). These processes
have emerged as valuable tools for optical and thermal
characterization of a wide range of samples, offering sig-
nificant improvements (high sensitivity and precision)
over traditional methods. This rapidly growing multidisci-
plinary field of research (Scudieri and Bertolotti, 1999)
brings together physicists; chemists; biologists, agricul-
tural, food, environmental, and medical scientists; and so
on. Basically, PA and PT involve studies of the heat pro-
duced in an absorbing sample when exposed to modulated
or pulsed optical radiation. The effects of optically induced
heating are observed either in the absorbing sample itself
or in the adjacent medium.
