In this presentation I will give an overview of our work involving pulsed laser characterization of materials. This research examines acoustic and thermal wave generation and propagation in diverse materials ranging from semiconductors to metallic alloys. Since lasers are employed for both acoustic generation and detection, this approach naturally lends itself to in situ monitoring of material property evolution in harsh environments. The temporal laser pulse length and the corresponding acoustic wavelength extend from 10 nanoseconds and 100 micrometers, respectively, through 1 picosecond and 10 nanometers.

On the large end of this spectrum, I will discuss a variety of problems germane to the nuclear energy industry. These include measuring microstructure evolution in extreme temperature and radiation environments, developing a better understanding of fatigue damage in high temperature environments and directly connecting properties to microstructure. I will conclude this section with a detailed discussion of using laser resonant ultrasound spectroscopy to monitor microstructure mediated mechanical properties during the recrystallization transformation.

On the small end of the spectrum, I will discuss a broad array of subjects ranging from nano-scale thermal transport in nuclear fuel, phonon focusing of gigahertz surface acoustic phonons in elastically anisotropic materials, generation and detection of ultrahigh frequency surface acoustic waves, and imaging subsurface structure and function of isolated grain boundaries.