Foreword

Abstract
The 9th International Workshop on Photoacoustics and Photothermics was held in Szczyrk as a part of the 33rd Winter School on Molecular and Quantum Acoustics. Photoacoustic and Photothermal Workshops have been organized annually since 1996, by the Upper-Silesian Division of Polish Acoustical Society in co-operation with Institute of Physics, Silesian Technical University of Gliwice. Traditionally, the workshops take place in small towns in Beskidy Mountains. They always start on Thursday afternoon and end on Friday evening.

The idea of these workshops is to give opportunities for direct contacts of scientists using photoacoustic and photothermal phenomena in their investigations. As a result participants are physicists, chemists and engineers interested in: theoretical backgrounds of photoacoustic and photothermal experiments, development of new measuring techniques, investigation of di?erent physical processes and determination of physical properties of various samples. So the thematic scope of the workshops is wide, but all contributions are connected with generation and propagation of non-stationary temperature fields.

The workshop is a place where experienced researchers present review lectures, younger scientists and PhD students show their own, original results, and all of them have possibilities for discussions either during sessions or during informal meetings.

These Proceedings contain 17 scientific papers. The most of them are printed versions of contributions presented during the 9th Workshop on Photoacoustics and Photothermics. One paper covers results showed in oral presentation and two posters. A few titles are slightly changed according to referee's suggestions.

I would like to thank all participants for preparing manuscripts for these proceedings. Special thanks should be expressed for referees: Prof. Danuta Frackowiak, Prof. Robert E. Imhof, Dr. Kyril L. Muratikov, Prof. Antoni Sliwinski and Priv. Doz. Heinz-Günter Walther for their valuable comments and suggestions. Their work allowed to avoid many mistakes and improved scientific value of presented papers.

I would like to thank all my collaborators, especially Dr. Jacek Mazur, who helped me prepare these proceedings for printing.

The Organizers gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the Polish State Committee for Scientific Research received via the Polish Acoustical Society.

I hope that all authors of papers presented in these issue and also new participants will join our 10th Workshop in winter 2005.

Jerzy Bodzenta

Silesian University of Technology

Gliwice, 1st July, 2004