Photothermal microscopy for the study of phase transformations

A novel system allowing a high spatial resolution mapping of the thermal diffusivity as a function of temperature up to 1800 K is presented. The system is based on a photothermal technique recently developed by the group, consisting in measuring, with a probe laser beam, the curvature induced by local heating with a modulated pump laser. A microscope heating stage was added to perform temperature ramp and soak that can be used for phase transition and thermal diffusivity determinations as functions of temperature. Spatial scans with microscopic resolution can be performed to study phases evolution at constant temperature for in situ thermal treatments and subsequent study of the spatial phase distribution. In this work an example is presented where the signal at a fixed point and constant modulation frequency is collected as a function of the temperature of the sample. A focus correction device was added to compensate for the thermal drift due to the thermal expansion of the system. The lateral displacement was corrected using a cross correlation algorithm and the camera image. This device was used to determine phase transition temperature of a test sample. These capabilities are shown with the determination of the activation energy for the phase transformation glass crystal of a Fe-B-Si alloy.