31 research outputs found
Point source in a phononic grating: stop bands give rise to phonon-focusing caustics
We use locally-excited gigahertz surface phonon wavepackets in microscopic line structures of different pitches to reveal profound anisotropy in the radiation pattern of a point source in a grating. Time-domain data obtained by an ultrafast optical imaging technique and by numerical simulations are Fourier transformed to obtain frequency-filtered real-space acoustic field patterns and k-space phononic band structure. The numerically-obtained k-space images are processed to reveal an intriguing double-horn structure in the lowest-order group-velocity surface, which explains the observed non-propagation sectors bounded by caustics, noted at frequencies above the bottom of the first stop band. We account for these phonon-focusing effects, analogous to collimation effects previously observed in two- and three-dimensional lattices, with a simple analytical model of the band structure based on a plane wave expansion. As the frequency is increased, a transition to dominant waveguiding effects along the lines is also documented
Doppler velocimetry of spin propagation in a two-dimensional electron gas
Controlling the flow of electrons by manipulation of their spin is a key to
the development of spin-based electronics. While recent demonstrations of
electrical-gate control in spin-transistor configurations show great promise,
operation at room temperature remains elusive. Further progress requires a
deeper understanding of the propagation of spin polarization, particularly in
the high mobility semiconductors used for devices. Here we report the
application of Doppler velocimetry to resolve the motion of spin-polarized
electrons in GaAs quantum wells driven by a drifting Fermi sea. We find that
the spin mobility tracks the high electron mobility precisely as a function of
T. However, we also observe that the coherent precession of spins driven by
spin-orbit interaction, which is essential for the operation of a broad class
of spin logic devices, breaks down at temperatures above 150 K for reasons that
are not understood theoretically