University of Virginia Patent Foundation

John T Gaskins

Patrick Edward Hopkins

Brian M Foley

David H Olson

Jeffrey L Braun

An apparatus related method for measuring a property of a target material. The system may include a pump device that generates a pump beam. A modulation device may receive the pump beam and generate a modulated pump beam by modulating an intensity amplitude of the pump beam, which may be directed to the target material. A probe device may generate a probe beam, which is directed to the target material. A part of the probe beam may be reflected off of the target material, and has similar frequency characteristic as the modulated pump beam. A detection device may detect the reflected probe beam and produce a signal. An analyzing device may receive the signal and calculate the target material property by comparing the modulated frequency characteristics of the signal to those of the pump beam. At least one of the pump and the probe beams may be infrared light.

Fiber-optic based material property measurement system and related methods

A method of measuring thermal conductivity of a material includes focusing a modulated pump laser beam having a modulation frequency that induces a cyclical steady-state temperature rise at a spot of a material, focusing a CW probe laser beam at the spot and generating a reflected probe beam reflected from the spot on the material, the reflected probe beam having a magnitude of a reflectance signal as a function of the temperature of the material and being periodic corresponding to the cyclical temperature rise, measuring the magnitude of the reflectance signals of the reflected probe beam, and determining the thermal conductivity by fitting the power of the pump beam and the measured magnitude of the reflectance signal to a thermal model which is a function of a thermal conductivity of the material relating the radial heat flux to the temperature rise.

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Charlottesville, VA, United States of America

John T Gaskins