Direct measurement of coherent subterahertz acoustic phonons mean free path in GaAs

Abstract

Phonon mean free path is generally inferred from the measurement of thermal conductivity and we are still lacking precise information on this quantity. Recent advances in the field of high frequency phonons transduction using semiconductor superlattices give the opportunity to fill this gap. We present experimental results on the attenuation of longitudinal acoustic phonons in GaAs in the frequency and temperature ranges 0.2-1THz and 10-80K respectively. Surprisingly, we observe a plateau, in the frequency dependence of the attenuation, above 0.4THz, that we ascribe to a breakdown of Herring processes.

9 pages, 4 figures

References in corpus (3)

• Direct Measurement of Room Temperature Non-diffusive Thermal Transport Over Micron Distances in a Silicon Membrane
• Gallium Arsenide Thermal Conductivity and Optical Phonon Relaxation Times from First-Principles Calculations
• Polariton resonances for ultra-strong coupling cavity optomechanics in GaAs/AlAs multiple quantum wells

Cited by in corpus (8)

• Terahertz phonon engineering with van der Waals heterostructures
• Topological acoustics in coupled nanocavity arrays
• Perspectives on high-frequency nanomechanics, nanoacoustics, and nanophononics
• Hydrodynamic heat transport regime in bismuth: a theoretical viewpoint
• Phonon engineering with superlattices: generalized nanomechanical potentials
• Generation and propagation of super-high-frequency bulk acoustic wave in GaAs
• Breakdown of Herring's processes in cubic semiconductors for sub-terahertz longitudinal acoustic phonons
• High spectral resolution of GaAs/AlAs phononic cavities by subharmonic resonant pump-probe excitation