Thermal Lens Technique for the Determination of SiC Thermo-Optical Properties

In this paper we combine the use of photo-thermal techniques, Thermal lens (TL) spectrometry, Photoacoustic and heat capacity measurements to determine the optical path dependence with temperature (ds/dT) of a polycrystalline 3C-SiC sample. Results obtained for the polycrystalline sample with the TL technique show that ds/dT is negative at room temperature. This means that the thermal lens formed in 3C-SiC acts as a divergent lens when light impinges the sample. Our measurements, demonstrate that photo-thermal techniques can be used to obtain thermal parameters in circumstances where other techniques cannot be used, for example, in harsh environments.