TY - GEN N1 - This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher?s terms and conditions. AV - public Y1 - 2018/12/20/ TI - Effect of Backing on Carbon-Polymer Nanocomposite Sources for Laser Generation of Broadband Ultrasound Pulses KW - hydrophone KW - calibration KW - nanocomposites KW - photoacoustics A1 - Rajagopal, S A1 - Treeby, BE A1 - Cox, BT SN - 1948-5727 UR - https://doi.org/10.1109/ULTSYM.2018.8579784 PB - IEEE ID - discovery10068083 N2 - Light absorbing polymer nanocomposites have been widely investigated as a source of broadband and high amplitude ultrasound generated via pulsed laser excitation. Biomedical applications of such sources include both imaging and ablative therapies. Fabrication of light absorbing nanocomposite sources has mostly involved elaborate chemistry. Here, a nanocomposite composed of multi-walled carbon nanotubes mechanically dispersed in polydimethylsiloxane polymer is used. The nanocomposite film was backed on optically clear polydimethylsiloxane and laboratory grade glass slides. The two backed sources were investigated using two lasers whose full-width half maximum durations were 2.6 and 4.0 ns. It was found that the characteristics of the acoustic field generated from the nanocomposite source showed a significant dependence on the backing when the stress confinement criterion is not satisfied. ER -