title: Observation of solitary elastic surface pulses.
abstract: The formation of solitary elastic surface pulses from laser-generated pulselike initial conditions is reported. The nonlinearity of the medium is compensated by both normal dispersion and anomalous dispersion, which were realized by coating isotropic fused silica by a metal and titanium nitride film, respectively. As an anisotropic material, silicon covered with an oxide layer was studied. The experimental results agree with numerical simulations carried out with a nonlocal evolution equation, which describes nonlinear propagation of surface acoustic waves in a dispersive medium.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Physical Chemistry, University of Heidelberg, D-69120 Heidelberg, Germany.
authors.forename: A M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Lomonosov
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Hess
authors.forename: A P
authors.initials: AP
authors.lastname: Mayer