Photo-excited charge carriers suppress sub-terahertz phonon mode in silicon at room temperature.
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ABSTRACT: There is a growing interest in the mode-by-mode understanding of electron and phonon transport for improving energy conversion technologies, such as thermoelectrics and photovoltaics. Whereas remarkable progress has been made in probing phonon-phonon interactions, it has been a challenge to directly measure electron-phonon interactions at the single-mode level, especially their effect on phonon transport above cryogenic temperatures. Here we use three-pulse photoacoustic spectroscopy to investigate the damping of a single sub-terahertz coherent phonon mode by free charge carriers in silicon at room temperature. Building on conventional pump-probe photoacoustic spectroscopy, we introduce an additional laser pulse to optically generate charge carriers, and carefully design temporal sequence of the three pulses to unambiguously quantify the scattering rate of a single-phonon mode due to the electron-phonon interaction. Our results confirm predictions from first-principles simulations and indicate the importance of the often-neglected effect of electron-phonon interaction on phonon transport in doped semiconductors.
SUBMITTER: Liao B
PROVIDER: S-EPMC5064017 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Oct
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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