Abstract: A rheometer includes a holder assembly for coupling a test specimen to a motor assembly to effect rotational strain in the test specimen while enabling the determination of axial displacement effected by the test specimen normal to the direction of the rotational strain, the holder assembly having a first member coupled to the test specimen, a second member coupled to the motor assembly, and a suspension arrangement coupling the first member with the second member for simultaneous maximum resistance to relative rotational displacement between the first and second members and minimum resistance to relative axial displacement between the first and second members.

Abstract: A platinum/Rhodium resistance thermal probe is used as an active device which acts both as a highly localized heat source and as a detector to perform localized differential calorimetry, by thermally inducing and detecting events such as glass transitions, meltings, recystallizations and thermal decomposition within volumes of material estimated at a few .mu.m.sup.3. Furthermore, the probe is used to image variations in thermal conductivity and diffusivity, to perform depth profiling and sub-surface imaging. The maximum depth of the sample that is imaged is controlled by generating and detecting evanescent temperature waves in the sample.