Low-temperature group velocity and elasticity in CaWO4

The CRESST experiment looks for evidence of dark matter particles colliding with nuclei in CaWO₄, using cryogenic bolometers sensitive to energy deposition (～10 keV) with high accuracy. Calibration of the energy deposited in the phonon system depends upon the details of the evolution of the non-equilibrium energy in the CaWO₄ absorber. Phonon images sensitively reveal variations in angular phonon flux in a single-crystal sample and provide accurate data for the group velocity along non-symmetry directions. Our measurements, over a wide range of propagation angles, provide new and precise values for phonon group velocities and uncover significant discrepancies between the experimentally observed transport of non-equilibrium energy and that predicted using values of the low-temperature elastic constants widely cited in the literature.     

Images of the phonon propagation across twist-bonded crystals

We investigate identical but twist-bonded crystals using phonon imaging techniques. As in homogeneous crystals, very anisotropic flux patterns are observed. However, the shape of the pattern depends dramatically on the respective twist angle. The observed phonon images in wafer bonded GaAs/GaAs and Si/Si samples are essentially consistent with the predictions of the acoustic mismatch model for defect-free interfaces, with the exception of GaAs wafers twist bonded at a 45 degrees angle where modes with large shear stress are missing, which indicates strong dislocation scattering.     

Mode dependent scattering of phonons by domain walls in ferroelectric KDP

Thermal conductivity and ballistic phonon imaging measurements in KH₂PO₄ (KDP) at low temperature (T<3K) indicate that scattering from domain walls has a large effect on phonon transport. kDP has a ferroelectric phase transition from tetragonal to orthorhombic structure atT _c =122 K. BelowT _c domains of opposite electric polarization and crystal orientation form unless the sample is colled in an electric field. Thermal conductivity measured along the [100] (tetragonal) axis drops 30% when domain walls are present, which is independent of sample size and temperature. We attribute this decrease to phonon polarization-dependent scattering at the domain boundaries. This is verified by measurements of ballistic transport, using phonon imaging techniques, which reveal the phonon polarization and mode dependence of the scattering. The scattering is successfully modelled using continuum acoustics with simple acoustic mismatch at the domainwall. The interface scattering is found to be mode dependent: Caustic structures in the phonon images due to slow transverse phonons are most affected by the domain wall scattering, which channels these phonons along parallel planes by multiple reflections without mode conversion. Mode conversion scattering, though possible for a number of phonons, has little effect on the overall phonon transmission.