Direct measurement of photo-induced nanoscale surface displacement in solids using atomic force microscopy

• AFM is employed to determine the time evolution of laser-induced surface deformation.
• The results are found to be in excellent agreement compared to those obtained using thermal mirror method.
• A theoretical model is proposed to determine physical properties of semi-transparent materials.
• The results show an alternative and concurrent method for measuring surface displacement using AFM.

The interaction between light and solid matter causes localized heating and surface displacement in the nanometer scale. The deformed surface can be analyzed by probing the time-dependent intensity of a laser reflected off of the surface using the thermal mirror (TM) method. This method provides quantitative measurements of thermal, optical and mechanical properties of a variety of materials. Here, we propose an alternative method to measure laser-induced surface deformation using atomic force microscopy (AFM). AFM is employed to determine the time evolution of the surface deformation and a theoretical model is proposed to determine physical properties of semi-transparent materials. The results are found to be in excellent agreement compared to those obtained using TM.