Novel Acoustic Phonon Source
ECE 595 Department Seminar Series
December 6, 2019
11:00 AM - 12:30 PM
Novel Acoustic Phonon Source
Presenter: Thomas Wilson, Marshall University
Abstract: A novel coherent 1.0 THz nanosecond-pulsed acoustic phonon source for both longitudinal and transverse polarization will be the focus of this lecture. It is a self-starting, mirrorless acoustic phonon phase-conjugate oscillator (APO) created by acousto-optic degenerate four-wave mixing in a THz-laser-pumped silicon doping superlattice (DSL). Coherent nanosecond-pulsed THz compressional and shear waves with different pumping thresholds are observed, consistent with distributed feedback within the DSL, when pumped by modest (10 mW) ns-pulsed THz laser radiation. Conversion efficiency (light to phonon) is estimated to be 0.1%. The APO may find application in a first experimental verification of THz cavity-coupled hybrid acoustic phonon and mechanically stress-split Si:B acceptor qubits, previously discussed by Soykal et. al., so-called “phonitons.”
Speaker bio: Thomas Wilson, PhD, is a professor in the physics department at Marshall University, a position he's held since 1999. He served as an assistant professor at the school from 1996 to 1999, and worked as a senior research scientist in the Submillimeter Technology Laboratory at the University of Massachusetts- Lowell from 1994 to 1996. From 1992 to 1994, Wilson worked as an assistant professor of physics at Marshall University, Huntington, WV, after serving as an assistant professor of physics at Connecticut College from 1985 to 1992. He received his doctoral degree in physics from Indiana University in 1984. His interests encompass a wide range of topics including: coherent acoustic phonon sources, coherent; terahertz acoustic phonons; THz acoustic phonon parametric oscillator based on acousto-optic degenerate four-wave mixing in a silicon doping superlattice; and phonon interference in crystalline and amorphous confined nanoscopic films.
Faculty Host: Professor Michael Stroscio, Richard and Loan Hill & Distinguished Professor, stroscio@uic.edu
Date posted
Sep 18, 2020
Date updated
Sep 18, 2020