Piezoelectric detection of photoacoustic signals.

Piezoelectric detection of photoacoustic signals offers a number of advantages over the better known microphonic technique for condensed phase samples. Experimental techniques are greatly simplified by taking advantage of the acoustic impedance match offered by solid state detectors with solid or liquid samples. Such piezoelectric detectors prove suitable for ac steady state measurements as well as impulse-transient response detectors. Several example spectra of Nd(III) are presented with emphasis on the effects of the fluorescence-lifetime in Nd:glass laser material.