Eosin Y is known to be a powerful probe of biological molecules and an efficient photosensitizing agent for the production of singlet molecular oxygen. Under continuous laser excitation, degradation through photobleaching is observed in aqueous solutions of eosin Y; this process is driven by the production of singlet oxygen. Optical bleaching in aqueous solutions is known to yield anomalous thermal lens transient signals, which can be evaluated by modeling the relaxation processes that give rise to the generation of heat in the solution. A model describing photobleaching in the thermal lens transient signal is derived and is applied to investigate eosin Y in aqueous solutions at different temperatures. Using this model, quantitative information regarding the molecular diffusion rate, optical bleaching, and fluorescence quantum efficiency is obtained.

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We induce nanometer-scale surface deformation by exploiting momentum conservation of the interaction between laser light and dielectric liquids. The effect of radiation force at the air-liquid interface is quantitatively assessed for fluids with different density, viscosity and surface tension. The imparted pressure on the liquids by continuous or pulsed laser light excitation is fully described by the Helmholtz electromagnetic force density.

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The time-resolved thermal mirror technique is developed under pulsed laser excitation for quantitative measurement of thermal and mechanical properties of opaque materials. Heat diffusion and thermoelastic equations are solved analytically for pulsed excitation assuming surface absorption and an instantaneous pulse. Analytical results for the temperature change and surface displacement in the sample are compared to all-numerical solutions using finite element method analysis accounting for the laser pulse width and sample geometry. Experiments are performed that validate the theoretical model and regression fitting is performed to obtain the thermal diffusivity and the linear thermal expansion coefficient of the samples. The values obtained for these properties are in agreement with literature data. The technique is shown to be useful for quantitative determinations of the physics properties of metals with high thermal diffusivity.