Study of the thermal diffusivity in low-response optical systems combining a thermal lensing approach with a standard addition method

Abstract

Thermal lensing is a local effect produced by the incidence of a light beam that heats a part of an absorbent material. Mathematical modeling of this photothermal phenomenon allows the determination of the medium’s thermal diffusivity. A pumping-modulated laser (405nm) induces the thermal lensing effect, and a test laser (650nm) generates the photothermal signal measured as a function of the modulation. The thermal diffusivity is obtained from a curve fit of the signal (calibrated for ethanol). In this work, the thermal diffusion coefficients of low-absorbance nanoparticle suspensions are established. This was achieved through the application of a standard addition method. The added analyte, enhance the optical response of SiO 2 nanoparticle suspensions. Different aliquots of tartrazine (analyte) resulted in different values for the thermal diffusion of the samples. It was found that the experimental coefficients of this colloids agree with the theoretical model. Finally, a linear regression allowed to find the thermal coefficient in the zero concentration point.