Observation of induced longitudinal and shear acoustic phonons by Brillouin scattering

To improve the accuracy of velocity measurements in the Brillouin scattering technique using weak thermal phonons, we have used induced coherent phonons, which intensify the scattering. To induce phonons in the gigahertz range, we used a c-axis tilted ZnO film transducer that was developed in our laboratory. This allowed us to induce longitudinal and shear acoustic phonons effectively at hypersonic frequencies. As a result, we obtained scattered light in the silica glass sample that was much more intense than that obtained from the thermal phonons. Because the Brillouin scattering from induced phonons was measured, the shift frequency was that of the electric signal applied to the ZnO transducer. Strong peaks lead to a reduction of the measurement time. This is useful for two-dimensional mapping of thin film elasticity using Brillouin scattering. Additionally, Brillouin scattering enables the simultaneous measurement of longitudinal and shear phonon velocities in the sample plane. This opens up a potential new technique for non-destructive elasticity measurements of various materials.