Probing coherently excited optical phonons by extreme ultraviolet radiation with femtosecond time resolution

E. Papalazarou (1) , Davide Boschetto (1) , Julien Gautier (1) , T. Garl (1) , C. Valentin (1) , G. Rey (1) , Philippe Zeitoun (1) , Antoine Rousse (1) , Philippe Balcou (2) , M. Marsi (3)

1 LOA - Laboratoire d'optique appliquée
2 CELIA - Centre d'Etudes Lasers Intenses et Applications
3 LPS - Laboratoire de Physique des Solides

We present a pump-probe experimental approach to study time-resolve coherent optical phonons using light pulses in the extreme ultraviolet wavelength range with femtosecond time resolution. Using this technique, a Bi (111)-oriented single crystal was excited by near-infrared (1.55 eV) pulses and probed by a high-order harmonic generation source, whose intrinsic flux instability was reduced by making use of a normalization procedure. This unconventional approach allowed us to perform measurements in a previously inaccessible range of phonon wavevectors within the Brillouin zone.

Keywords: bismuth; Brillouin zones; phononic crystals; ultraviolet radiation effects

Domains: Optics [physics.optics]

E. Papalazarou, Davide Boschetto, Julien Gautier, T. Garl, C. Valentin, et al.. Probing coherently excited optical phonons by extreme ultraviolet radiation with femtosecond time resolution. Applied Physics Letters, 2008, 93 (4), pp.041114. ⟨10.1063/1.2966180⟩. ⟨hal-00515335⟩