Abstract

We present a novel method of creating phonon excitations in an amorphous thin film of a chalcogenide glass. Phonon generation and detection is done optically and thus allows measurement with picosecond time resolution. Current methods of studying phonon propagation involve ultrasonics or heat-pulse techniques. These use conventional electronics, and the time resolution is limited to nanoseconds. Our picosecond method is a promising tool for studying propagation of phonons with extremely short mean free paths.

© 1984 Optical Society of America