Lifetime of THz Acoustic Nanocavity Modes

G. Rozas , M.F. Pascual Winter (1) , Bernard Jusserand (1) , A. Fainstein (2, 3) , Bernard Perrin (1) , E. Semenova (4) , A. Lemaitre

1 INSP - Institut des Nanosciences de Paris
2 Centro Atómico Bariloche [Argentine]
3 Instituto Balseiro [Bariloche]
4 LPN - Laboratoire de photonique et de nanostructures

We present an ultrahigh resolution Raman study of the lifetime of 1 THz acoustic phonons confined in nanocavities. We demonstrate that the cavity Q factor can be controlled by design. Anharmonicity contributes only marginally to limit the cavity phonon lifetime, even at room temperature, while thickness fluctuations in the scale of 1/10 of a unit cell are the main limitation for the performance of THz phonon cavities.

Domaines: Science des matériaux [cond-mat.mtrl-sci]

G. Rozas, M.F. Pascual Winter, Bernard Jusserand, A. Fainstein, Bernard Perrin, et al.. Lifetime of THz Acoustic Nanocavity Modes. Physical Review Letters, 2009, 102, pp.015502. ⟨10.1103/PhysRevLett.102.015502⟩. ⟨hal-00418667⟩