Photothermal methods: Application to diamond, aluminium nitride and zirconia

Photothermal methods have turned out to be a very interesting way to carry out the study of complex materials such as functional ceramics (polycrystalline diamond - aluminium nitride -zirconia) whose thermal properties have to be determined at different spatial scales if one wants to optimize their thermal behaviour. Results at microscopic scales (diffusivity at the scale of one single grain and thermal barriers at grain boundaries) and at macroscopic scales (averaged value of the diffusivity on a large number of grains and interfaces) are presented.