Physical Review Letters
Dynamics of monochromatically generated nonequilibrium phonons in LaF3 : Pr3+
W. A. Tolbert, William M. Dennis, William M. Yen
Abstract
The temporal evolution of nonequilibrium phonon populations in ${\mathrm{LaF}}_{3}$:${\mathrm{Pr}}^{3+}$ is investigated at low temperatures (1.8 K) utilizing pulsed, tunable, monochromatic generation and time-resolved, tunable, narrow-band detection. High occupation number, narrow-band phonon populations are generated via far-infrared pumping of defect-induced one-phonon absorption. Time-resolved, frequency-selective detection is provided by optical sideband absorption. Nonequilibrium phonon decay times are measured and attributed to anharmonic decay.