High-contrast thermoreflectance thermography using a Nipkow disk confocal microscope

This paper demonstrates the use of a Nipkow disk confocal microscope for improved contrast and resolution of CCD TR thermography. The performance of wide field and confocal thermography is compared, with experimental results showing that confocal CCD TR offers more than a 2-fold improvement in image contrast due to suppression of out-of-focus light, for improved lateral discrimination of thermoreflectance signals at the sample surface. In additional, use of a Nipkow disk makes the system easily adaptable to CCD thermography, and uses an inexpensive light source.