title: High wavevector optical phonons in microstructured Bismuth films.
abstract: We report the generation of high wavevector, large amplitude coherent optical phonons in a microstructured Bismuth film. A femtosecond laser pulse optically excites a periodic micron scale grating etched into a Bismuth film. The ultrafast excitation produced coherent optical phonon oscillations with wavevectors as large as 1 microm(-1), providing a possible method of generating an efficient sub-picosecond switch for hard x-rays.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Delaware Newark, DE 19716, USA.
authors.forename: Zhiyuan
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Brian C
authors.initials: BC
authors.lastname: Minch
authors.forename: Matthew F
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: DeCamp