Spatial resolution of optoacoustic laser-radiation detectors

The spatial resolution of capacitor-microphone optoacoustic detectors of laser radiation was considered and experimentally investigated for the first time. It was found that a high spatial resolution can be achieved by introducing buffer volumes and damping diaphragms, the optoacoustic signals from the region outside the diaphragms being thereby considerably attenuated and delayed in time. Optoacoustic detectors with high spatial resolution, by virtue of space–time discrimination of the optoacoustic signals, give increased concentration sensitivity and also make possible proper measurements of the absorption in focused fields.