Abstract-Ultracompact interference phonon nanocapacitor for storage and lasing of terahertz lattice waves

Haoxue Han, Baowen Li, Sebastian Volz, and Yuriy A. Kosevich

http://journals.aps.org/prl/accepted/63070Y5cJ2e19245450a0b6763a77220fc18961ff

We introduce a novel ultracompact nanocapacitor of coherent phonons formed by high-finesse interference mirrors based on atomic-scale semiconductor metamaterials. Our molecular dynamics simulations show that the nanocapacitor stores monochromatic terahertz lattice waves, which can be used for phonon lasing - the emission of coherent phonons. Either one- or two-color phonon emission can be realized depending on the geometry of the nanodevice. The two-color regime of the interference phonon nanocapacitor originates from different incidence-angle dependence of the transmission of longitudinal and transverse phonons at the respective antiresonances. Coherent phonon storage can be achieved by cooling the nanocapacitor initially thermalized at room temperature or by the pump-probe technique. The linewidth narrowing and the computed relative phonon participation number confirm strong phonon confinement in the interference nanocavity by an extremely small amount of resonance defects. The emission of coherent terahertz acoustic beams from the nanocapacitor can be realized by applying tunable reversible stress which shifts the antiresonance frequencies.