We report on a contactless method to focus laser generated bulk and surface ultrasound
waves in the thermo-elastic coupling mode by annular shaped illumination. By using a spatial
light modulator (SLM) the beam profile of a pulsed picoseconds laser was shaped to annular forms
flexibly and further rings with a thickness of 50 μm and a generation energy as low as 2 mJ were
generated on the surface of aluminum plates. The annular shapes have been used to focus acoustic
waves toward the center. In this work, a photorefractive adaptive interferometer set up based on
Two-Wave Mixing in a fast BSO crystal was used to probe and detect the converging acoustic
pulses at the center of the laser generated rings. By moving the detection point about 1 mm out of
the ring epicenter, the amplitude of bulk and surface waves drop quickly which shows the
converging evidence of the acoustic waves in the ring center. For a 3 mm thick aluminum plate,
the ring size from 1 mm to 10 mm was scanned. The optimum ring diameter and the focal length
of the acoustic waves along the central axis were found. Applications of this technique in
subsurface defects detection as well as sample thickness measurement are investigated.