Measurement of the complex amplitude of transient surface acoustic waves using double-pulsed TV holography and a two-stage spatial Fourier transform method

We present a technique to measure the mechanical complex amplitude, i.e. the mechanical amplitude and phase of vibration, of an ultrasonic plane wavefield of nanometric amplitude that propagates on a surface. Our aim is to detect perturbations of the initially smooth wavefronts that indicate the presence of flaws in the material. We use bursts of surface acoustic waves (SAWs) and a double-pulsed TV holography system that records two correlograms with time separations down to 1.5 micro s. The phases of the correlograms are calculated separately using the spatial Fourier transform method (SFTM) and operated on to obtain the phase change between exposures. In the resultant optical phase map, the field of instantaneous displacements of the surface (that comprises several periods of the SAW) acts as a modulated spatial carrier, now related to the mechanical phase and amplitude, that are extracted by applying the SFTM again.