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Abstract
A full theoretical analysis of the optical excitation of Love waves is presented. The explicit formulae relating the frequency spectrum of the Love modes to the space-time modulation of laser radiation are derived. The photoacoustic transformation is assumed to be caused by the inverse piezoeffect in the electric field induced by the spatial separation of laser-generated electrons and holes. It is demonstrated that information on the parameters of the film can be extracted from the measurements of the relative amplitudes of the different order Love modes. As the structure of the Love modes is simpler than that of pseudo-Rayleigh waves, we consider optical monitoring of the Love modes to be a promising method for remote diagnostics of thin coatings when the film or the substrate, or both, are piezoelectrics.