Abstract: | Ultrashort‐pulsed lasers with pulse durations of the order of sub‐picosecond to femtosecond domain possess exclusive capabilities in limiting the undesirable spread of the thermal process zone in the heated sample. Parabolic two‐step micro heat transport equations have been widely applied for thermal analysis of thin metal films exposed to picosecond thermal pulses. In this study, we develop a three‐level finite difference scheme for solving the micro heat transport equations in a double‐layered micro sphere. It is shown by the discrete energy method that the scheme is unconditionally stable. Numerical results for thermal analysis of a gold layer coated on a chromium padding layer are obtained. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq, 2006 |