Direct measurement of coherent subterahertz acoustic phonons mean free path in GaAs

Abstract

The phonon mean free path is generally inferred from the measurement of thermal conductivity and we are still lacking precise information on this quantity. Recent advances in the field of high-frequency phonons transduction using semiconductor superlattices give the opportunity to fill this gap. We present experimental results on the attenuation of longitudinal acoustic phonons in GaAs in the frequency and temperature ranges 0.2--1 THz and 10--80 K respectively. Surprisingly, we observe a plateau in the frequency dependence of the attenuation above 0.7 THz, that we ascribe to a breakdown of Herring processes.