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We report generation of ultra-broadband longitudinal acoustic coherent phonon wavepackets in SrTiO3 (STO) with frequency components extending throughout the first Brillouin zone. The wavepackets are efficiently generated in STO using femtosecond infrared laser excitation of an atomically flat 1.6 nm-thick epitaxial SrRuO3 film. We use femtosecond x-ray diffraction at the European X-Ray Free Electron Laser Facility to study the dispersion and damping of phonon wavepackets. The experimentally determined damping constants for multi-THz frequency phonons compare favorably to the extrapolation of a simple ultrasound damping model over several orders of magnitude.
We synthesize sub-THz longitudinal quasimonochromatic acoustic phonons in a SrTiO3 single crystal using a SrRuO3/SrTiO3 superlattice as an optical-acoustic transducer. The generated acoustic phonon spectrum is determined using ultrafast x-ray diffraction. The analysis of the generated phonon spectrum in the time domain reveals a k-vector dependent phonon lifetime. It is observed that even at sub-THz frequencies the phonon lifetime agrees with the 1/omega(2) power law known from Akhiezer's model for hyper sound attenuation. The observed shift of the synthesized spectrum to the higher q is discussed in the framework of nonlinear effects appearing due to the high amplitude of the synthesized phonons.
We excite an epitaxial SrRuO3 thin film transducer by a pulse train of ultrashort laser pulses, launching coherent sound waves into the underlying SrTiO3 substrate. Synchrotron-based x-ray diffraction (XRD) data exhibiting separated sidebands to the substrate peak evidence the excitation of a quasi-monochromatic phonon wavepacket with sub-THz central frequency. The frequency and bandwidth of this sound pulse can be controlled by the optical pulse train. We compare the experimental data to combined lattice dynamics and dynamical XRD simulations to verify the coherent phonon dynamics. In addition, we observe a lifetime of 130 ps of such sub-THz phonons in accordance with the theory.
We present ultrafast X-ray diffraction (UXRD) experiments which sensitively probe impulsively excited acoustic phonons propagating in a SrRuO3/SrTiO3 superlattice and further into the substrate. These findings are discussed together with previous UXRD results (Herzog et al. in Appl. Phys. Lett. 96, 161906, 2010; Woerner et al. in Appl. Phys. A 96, 83, 2009; v. Korff Schmising in Phys. Rev. B 78, 060404(R), 2008 and in Appl. Phys. B 88, 1, 2007) using a normal-mode analysis of a linear-chain model of masses and springs, thus identifying them as linear-response phenomena. We point out the direct correspondence of calculated observables with X-ray signals. In this framework the complex lattice motion turns out to result from an interference of vibrational eigenmodes of the coupled system of nanolayers and substrate. UXRD in principle selectively measures the lattice motion occurring with a specific wavevector, however, each Bragg reflection only measures the amplitude of a delocalized phonon mode in a spatially localized region, determined by the nanocomposition of the sample or the extinction depth of X-rays. This leads to a decay of experimental signals although the excited modes survive.