Picosecond Acoustics At 30 Ghz In The Nucleus Of An Osteoblast Cell

We use femtosecond laser pulses absorbed in a metallic transducer, namely the picosecond ultrasonics technique, for the remote optical generation and detection of GHz acoustic frequencies in single cells by pump-probe sampling. Samples are MC3T3 cells adhering on a TiAl6V alloy substrate. Both pump and probe beams are focused at the cell/transducer interface. The pump absorption yields a temperature rise in the absorbing substrate and a picosecond acoustic pulse is generated through the thermoelastic effect. The probe beam is partially reflected from the metallic interface and partially scattered by the acoustic wavefront propagating in the transparent cell. The change of reflectivity of the cell is measured as a function of the pump-probe time delay. Interferences arise from the two probe contributions causing the so-called Brillouin oscillations. Optical phase variations due to acoustic-induced changes in cell thickness are simultaneously measured. The result of a semi-analytical calculation is fitted to the experimental data. Acoustic frequencies are detected at 30 GHz in the nucleus of single osteoblast cells.