title: Femtosecond nonlinear ultrasonics in gold probed with ultrashort surface plasmons.
abstract: Fundamental interactions induced by lattice vibrations on ultrafast time scales have become increasingly important for modern nanoscience and technology. Experimental access to the physical properties of acoustic phonons in the terahertz-frequency range and over the entire Brillouin zone is crucial for understanding electric and thermal transport in solids and their compounds. Here we report on the generation and nonlinear propagation of giant (1 per cent) acoustic strain pulses in hybrid gold/cobalt bilayer structures probed with ultrafast surface plasmon interferometry. This new technique allows for unambiguous characterization of arbitrary ultrafast acoustic transients. The giant acoustic pulses experience substantial nonlinear reshaping after a propagation distance of only 100 nm in a crystalline gold layer. Excellent agreement with the Korteveg-de Vries model points to future quantitative nonlinear femtosecond terahertz-ultrasonics at the nano-scale in metals at room temperature.
authors: Department of Chemistry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA. vasily.temnov@univ-lemans.fr
authors: Vasily V
authors: VV
authors: Temnov
authors: Christoph
authors: C
authors: Klieber
authors: Keith A
authors: KA
authors: Nelson
authors: Tim
authors: T
authors: Thomay
authors: Vanessa
authors: V
authors: Knittel
authors: Alfred
authors: A
authors: Leitenstorfer
authors: Denys
authors: D
authors: Makarov
authors: Manfred
authors: M
authors: Albrecht
authors: Rudolf
authors: R
authors: Bratschitsch
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