Physical Review Letters
Temperature effects in nonequilibrium phonon decay
Xiaojun Wang, William M. Dennis, William M. Yen
Abstract
We have investigated the spectral and temporal dynamics associated with the interaction between monochromatic and thermal phonon distributions in YAG:${\mathrm{Pr}}^{3+}$. Using defect-induced one-phonon absorption to generate a monochromatic phonon distribution at 43.3 ${\mathrm{cm}}^{\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}1}$, we measure a ${\mathit{T}}^{\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}3}$ dependence of the monochromatic phonon lifetime in the temperature range 9 to 25 K. We observe the evolution of additional broadband phonon distributions which do not occur at low temperatures.