Dispersive anisotropic ballistic phonon propagation in [100] GaAs

We report experimental observations of the phonon focusing pattern in [100] GaAs using low temperature electron beam scanning for phonon generation. The typical dispersive effects for high-frequency phonons expected from the calculations by Tamura have clearly been observed using PbIn tunnel junctions for phonon detection. The quantitative comparison of our experimental results with the frequency dependent calculations by Tamura allowed to determine the dominant phonon frequencies contributing to the detector signal in our different experiments. Above the temperature of the -point the dominant phonon frequencies appear to be shifted considerably to lower values, which could be explained by a heating effect in the liquid-He layer adjacent to the tunnel junction detector. By comparing the observed magnitude of the detector signal with different theoretical treatments of the detector response, we have found satisfactory agreement for a model where the perturbation due to the high-frequency phonons is restricted to the base electrode of the detector reached first by the phonons following their passage through the crystal.     

Imaging of spatial structures in crystals with ballistic phonons

Ballistic phonon propagation in single crystals has been used for imaging defect structures in bulk material. We have realized this principle by means of low-temperature scanning electron microscopy. As model cases we have imaged laser drilled holes in single-crystalline sapphire and -quartz samples. Comparing the acoustic images with those obtained by optical transmission microscopy, we found that fine structure seen optically was well reproduced acoustically. In addition strain fields due to plastic deformations could clearly be imaged acoustically. The spatial resolution of our imaging technique is estimated to be a few micrometer. By using two or more phonon detectors, three-dimensional imaging of spatial inhomogeneities becomes possible.