A transmission-line approach to obtain the thermal solutions for two- and three-layer samples at the front surface is described. These solutions an fitted to pulsed photothermal reflectance data for a Au/TAC/Si sample. The results indicate that the two- and three-layer models agree with each other and the embedded TAC film can be treated as a thermal resistance. The fitted thermal property of the TAC film is relatively close (K-TAC ranging from 1.77 to 2.21 W/m per K) with different pulse shapes. This indicates that the pulse shape function does not play a significant role in the TAC film's thermal property determination. However, the fitted thermal property of the Au layer is highly pulse shape function dependent (K-AU ranging from 71 to 280 W/m per K). There one finds that the pulse shape function needs to match the excitation pulse in order to obtain the correct thermal property of the Au layer.