Phonon lifetimes and phonon decay in InN

Abstract

We report on the Raman analysis of A1(LO) (longitudinal optical) and E2 phonon lifetimes in InN and their temperature dependence from 80 to 700 K. Our experimental results show that among the various possible decay channels, the A1(LO) phonon decays asymmetrically into a high energy and a low energy phonon, whereas the E2 phonon predominantly decays into three phonons. Possible decay channels of the A1(LO) phonon may involve combinations of transverse optical and acoustic phonons. Phonon lifetimes of 1.3 and 4 ps were measured at 80 K for the A1(LO) and the E2 phonons, respectively. This rather long A1(LO) phonon lifetime suggests that hot phonon effects will play a role in InN for carrier relaxation.