Noise generated in an ultrasonic receiver circuit consisting of transducer and amplifier is usually ignored, or treated as a nuisance. Here it is argued that acoustic thermal fluctuations, with displacement amplitudes of 3 fm, contain substantial ultrasonic information. It is shown that the noise autocorrelation function is the waveform that would be obtained in a direct pulse/echo measurement. That thesis is demonstrated in experiments in which direct measurements are compared to correlation functions. The thermal nature of the elastodynamic noise that generates these correlations is confirmed by an absolute measurement of their strength, essentially a measurement of the sample temperature.

• Received 5 April 2001

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.87.134301