Photothermal depth profiling: analysis of reconstruction errors

Abstract

The accuracy of photothermal depth profiling of the thermal conductivity profile of thermally inhomogeneous materials is discussed in detail. The reconstruction error is statistically analysed as a function of depth and noise, for different classes of profiles. The analysis is done in the framework of reconstructions obtained by a neural network approach, thermal wave backscattering theory and a method which is based on a statistical sampling of the chi-squared function in a restricted part of the profile space. The latter analysis yields confidence intervals for the reconstructions.