Photothermal science continues to be an area of rapid development and active investigation, as is demonstrated by this volume. The various contributions present fundamental research in materials science, physics, chemistry, biology, and medicine, as well as important applications of photothermal techniques in nondestructive evaluation, aeronomy and pollution control, and other areas. The topics treated include measurements of spectral properties of gases, the theory of thermally generated elastic waves, a method of monitoring local surface displacements, materials characterization and nondestructive evaluation of materials, studies of the dynamics of primary photophysical processes, fast energy exchange at surfaces and at interfaces (e.g. in medicine and photobiology), thermal EXAFS and XANES applied to metals and semiconductors, and imaging of magnetic materials using microwave sources.

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I Imaging and Characterization.- Photothermal Imaging Using Microwave Detection.- Micrometer Photoacoustic Imaging by Photodeformation: Application to Carbon-Carbon Composites.- Photothermal Imaging of Local Thermal Resistances.- Detection of Vertical Cracks in Ceramic Materials by the Mirage Effect.- A Novel "Flying-Spot" Infrared Camera for Imaging Very Fast Thermal-Wave Phenomena.- Characterization of Semiconductor Thin Films Using High-Frequency Photothermal-Optical-Beam-Deflection Imaging.- Real-Time Thermal-Wave Imaging of Plasma-Sprayed Coatings and Adhesive Bonds Using a Box-Car Video Technique.- Non-destructive Evaluation of the Distribution of Stress by Means of the Photoacoustic Microscope.- Characterization of Metal Defects in Insulating Materials.- Thermal Wave Characterization of Ceramics.- II Nondestructive Evaluation and Layered Systems.- Time-Domain Opto-thermal Spectro-radiometry.- Time-Resolved Infrared Radiometry for Characterization of Structured Materials.- The Effect of Transverse Heatflow and the Use of Characteristic Times in Studying Multilayered-Coatings in the Time Domain.- Photoacoustic Quantitative Depth Profiling of an Ion-Pair Adsorbed Polyvinylchloride Film Using an Approximation of the Inverse Laplace Transform.- Depth Profiling of Opaque Multilayer Materials by Correlation Photoacoustics.- Modelling of Sample Translucency, Substrate Absorption and Interface Defects for Thermal Wave Infrared Inspection of Thermal Barrier Coatings.- Transient Thermal Wave Techniques for the Characterisation of Surface Coatings.- Numerical Analysis of the Transient Thermal Response of Subsurface Defects.- Measurement of the Thermal Diffusivity and Effusivity of Porous Bulk Materials.- Photoacoustic Measurements of Thermophysical Properties Between Room Temperature and 1000K - Experimental Technique and First Results for Graphites.- NDE Applications of High-Resolution Photoinductive Imaging.- Nondestructive Evaluation of a Semi-infinite Buried Slab by Photothermal Deflection.- Impulse Response Measurements Using Both Photoacoustic and Photothermal Deflection Methods.- III Thin Films.- Mapping of Charge Profiles of Thin Electret Films by Sub-nanosecond Thermal Pulses.- Reduction of the Photoacoustic Signal by the Evaporation Resistance of Thin Films on Liquids and Solids.- Photopyroelectric Spectroscopy (PPES) of a-Si: H Thin Films on Quartz.- Photothermal Deflection Method for Monitoring Photoelectronic and Nonradiative Energy Conversion in Semiconductor Photoelectrochemical (PEC) Cells.- Photothermal Spectroscopy of Rhodamine 6G Dye in Organic and Inorganic Amorphous Films.- Photoacoustic-Attenuated Total Reflection Study of Surface Roughness in Thin Metal Films.- Thermal Wave Measurement of Diamond Films.- Thermal Diffusivity of Thin Diamond Films.- Thermal Diffusivity of CVD Diamond Films Using Thermal Wave Techniques.- Measurements of the Absorption Distribution of Optical Thin Films by Scanning Photothermal Microscopy.- IV Semiconductors.- High Resolution Thermal Wave Measurements and Imaging of Defects and Damage in Electronic Materials.- Subsurface Defect Inspection in IC Devices with Thermal Wave Imaging.- Temperature Effect on Photothermal Reflectance Signal: Application to Ion Implanted and Amorphous Silicon.- Study of the Induced Damage and of the Annealing Kinetics of Defects in Ion Implanted Silicon Using the Photothermal Reflectance Technique.- Subgap Amorphous Silicon Photothermal Deflection Spectroscopy: Spatial Absorption Localization Studies.- Subgap Absorption Spectra of Ion Implanted Si and GaAs Layers.- Beam Deflection Investigation of the Dynamics of Carriers Photoexcited from Deep Centers in CdS: Cu+.- Axisymmetrical Modeling of a Photothermal Collinear Beam Deflection in a Semiconductor with the Use of a Fast Hankel Transform.- Frequency Dependence of Amplitude and Phase of Photothermal-Optical-Beam-Deflection Signal.- Determination of Optical and Thermal Properties of the GaAsSb/GaAs Heterostructure by Photothermal Deflection Spectroscopy.- Anomalous Properties of Amorphous Semiconductor Superlattices Characterized by Photoacoustic and Photothermal Spectra.- Piezoelectric Photoacoustic Effect of Semiconductors in DC Electric Fields.- Photoacoustic Study of the Glass Transition and Crystallization in Bulk GexTe1-x and Te1-x Glasses.- V High-Temperature Superconductors.- Spectroscopy of High Tc Oxides and Plasma Frequency Determination.- Imaging of Defects in Metallo-organic Thin Films by Photothermal Deflection.- Laser Beam Deflection as a Probe of Laser Ablation of Materials.- Specific Heat Jump in High Tc Superconductors Measured by a Compensation Technique.- Photothermal Measurements of High-Tc Superconductors.- Investigation of Surface Diffusivity of High Tc Superconductivity Films by the "Mirage Effect".- Simultaneous Monitoring of Specific Heat, Thermal Conductivity, and Thermal Diffusivity Anomalies in YBa2Cu3O7-x Superconductors Using the Photopyroelectric Effect.- Photopyroelectric Impulse Response Investigation of Single Crystal YBa2Cu3O7-x.- High Resolution Photoacoustic Spectroscopy of HO2O3 and Nd2O3 Powders with a Piezoelectric Detector.- Separation of Surface Optical Absorption of BaYCuO Thin Film from Absorption of Substrate by Using the Phase of the Photoacoustic Signal.- VI Nonoptical Excitation Sources.- X-Ray Photoacoustics for Characterization and Non-destructive Evaluation.- Photoacoustic X-Ray Absorption Near Edge Structure in CuInSe2.- Energy Transfer from Low Energy Noble Gas Ions to Gold Surfaces Using a Pyroelectric Calorimeter.- Energy Deposition at Solid Surfaces Studied by cw-Photothermal Displacement Spectroscopy.- Evaluation of the Temperature Dependence of Electron Acoustic Signals in Silicon by Use of a Capacitive Transducer.- Optical Beam Deflection in Semiconductors with Electron Beam Excitation.- Study of Magnetostatic Modes in Yttrium Iron Garnet by Photothermal Laser Beam Deflection.- Detection of Nonthermal Microwave-Induced Photoacoustic Signals in Water.- VII Thermoelasticity.- Laser-Generated Ultrasound: Toward Realistic Modeling.- Transmission and Reflection Thermoacoustic Imaging of Metallic Samples.- Thermoelastic Properties of a Two-Material Junction.- Photoacoustic Evaluation of Aerogel-Glass Interfaces.- A Beam Deflection Technique for Photo-acoustic Lamb Wave Measurements.- Laser Induced Sheet Waves for Investigating Anisotropy in Polymer Film.- VIII Thermal Properties and Phase Transitions.- Photoacoustic Monitoring of Polymerization Processes.- Simultaneous Monitoring of Heat Capacity Thermal Conductivity and Diffusivity over the Smectic A-Nematic Transition in Alkylcyanobiphenyl Liquid Crystals.- Photoacoustic Measurement of the Glass Transition of Polymeric Materials.- Photoacoustic Investigation of the Anisotropic Thermal Behavior of Liquid Crystals.- Photopyroelectric Detection of Phase Transitions in Thermally Thick Solids.- Phase Transition of GMO and TGS Crystals Studied by a Photothermal Beam-Deflection Technique.- Anisotropic Thermal Diffusivity…