Directivity of GHz shear acoustic waves launched by the absorption of short laser pulses at the interface between a transparent and an absorbing material

When a short laser pulse is focused at the interface between a transparent and an absorbing material, an expansion source is created that generates mainly longitudinal acoustic pulses in the absorbing material. However, the interaction of these waves with the interface favours the excitation of shear acoustic pulses. In this paper, we present an analytical prediction of the directivity of shear waves launched in a semi-infinite absorbing medium, and we introduce corrections in order to account for detection in an absorbing layer. Experiments were performed with a picosecond ultrasonic set-up focusing femtosecond laser pulses to a micron spot size along the interface between sapphire and titanium. In this configuration, acoustic wave-fronts were reflected at the free surface of the micron titanium layer, and then optically detected at the interface. We also present an approach to filter and enhance the shear waves by processing measured wave-fronts recorded at multiple locations along the interface. In the...