Determination of phonon decay rate in p-type silicon under Fano resonance by measurement of coherent phonons

We determine phonon decay rate by measuring the temperature dependence of coherent phonons in p-type Si under Fano resonance, where there is interference between the continuum and discrete states. As the temperature decreases, the decay rate of coherent phonons decreases, whereas that evaluated from the Raman linewidth increases. The former follows the anharmonic decay model, whereas the latter does not. The different temperature dependences of the phonon decay rate of the two methods originate from the way that the continuum state, which originates from the Fano resonance, modifies the time-and frequency-domain spectra. The observation of coherent phonons is useful for evaluating the phonon decay rate free from the interaction with the continuum state and clarifies that the anharmonic decay is dominant in p-type Si even under Fano resonance. (C) 2015 Author(s). All article content, except where otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.