Determination of elastic properties of Si/Ge superlattices and Si1-xGex films from surface acoustic modes by Brillouin scattering

Surface acoustic waves (SAW) have been measured by means of Brillouin scattering (BS) both as a function of k×h and the direction of k in the sample plane (k is the wavevector of the surface acoustic mode and h the thickness of the film). The velocity of the Rayleigh wave on sufficiently thick films (h > 4000 Å) has been experimentally found to ve uneffected by the elastic properties of the substrate material. Thus the directional dependence of the hypersonic surface wave is completely determined by the elastic properties of the layer material alone and reflects its crystallographic symmetry. The SL's can be treated as media with effective elastic constants because the wavelength of the thermally excited Rayleigh wave is much longer than the SL period. Furthermore, the angular dispersion of the SAW can be used to calculate the elastic constants of each film separately.