Photoreflectance, IR radiometry, and Mirage Effect detection serve as good examples due to the flexibility of these techniques. This flexibility has been demonstrated in domains as practical as on site non-destructive testing of commercial aeronautic equipment and as fundamental as metrology of optical components, passing by exciting new topics such as characterization of diamond films and semiconductor devices as well as environmental monitoring. We wish to present here both a general overview of how optical detection of Photothermal excitation can be used in a variety of experimental schemes, as well as specific details of technical applications based on work which is well know to us. We have decided to focus on applications, instead of presenting too many details of the theory, in an effort to demonstrate the specific advantages of the individual techniques and to better illustrate the principles involved, and will compare works which illustrate the choices available. We hope in this way to present the most important points of the present state of the art for the researcher who wishes to evaluate Photothermal detection schemes for his own applications based on the specific advantages they offer. We also hope to provide sufficient references to other published resources, so that one may continue where we have, in the interest of brevity, left off.
Mesoscopic IR radiometry/La radiométrie mesoscopique IR
Reflectometry/La réflectomètrie