Here we present a protocol to estimate material and surface optical properties using the photoacoustic effect combined with total internal reflection. This technique evanescent field-based photoacoustics can be used to create a photoacoustic metrology system to estimate materials' thicknesses, bulk and thin film refractive indices, and explore their optical properties.
Goldschmidt, B. S., Rudy, A. M., Nowak, C. A., Tsay, Y., Whiteside, P. J. D., Hunt, H. K. Evanescent Field Based Photoacoustics: Optical Property Evaluation at Surfaces. J. Vis. Exp. (113), e54192, doi:10.3791/54192 (2016).