We show that the coherent interaction between microcavity polaritons and externally stimulated acoustic phonons forms a tunable polariton superlattice with a folded energy dispersion determined by the phonon population and wavelength. Under high phonon concentration, the strong confinement of the optical and excitonic polariton components in the phonon potential creates weakly coupled polariton...

We study phonon-assisted dephasing in optically excited semiconductor quantum dots within the frameworks of the independent Boson model and optimal control. Using a realistic description for the quantum dot states and the phonon coupling, we demonstrate that such dephasing has a drastic impact on the coherent optical response. We employ optimal control theory to search for control strategies th...

We demonstrate a new time-domain surface phonon spectroscopy. We excite coherent surface optical phonons with an ultrashort laser pulse and probe the free-induction decay with time-resolved surface second-harmonic generation. For both clean GaAs (110) and (100) surfaces, the signals are remarkably large due to the highly localized electron-phonon interaction at the surface and the intrinsic sur...

We employ ultrafast transient absorption spectroscopy with temporal pulse shaping to manipulate coherent phonon excitation and quantify the strength of electron-phonon coupling in CdTe1 xSex nanocrystals (NCs). Raman active CdSe and CdTe longitudinal optical phonon (LO) modes are excited and probed in the time domain. By temporally controlling pump pulse pairs to coherently excite and cancel co...

We report a comprehensive investigation of the lattice dynamics of URu2Si2 as a function of temperature using Raman scattering, optical conductivity, and inelastic neutron scattering measurements as well as theoretical ab initio calculations. The main effects on the optical phonon modes are related to Kondo physics. The B1g ( 3 symmetry) phonon mode slightly softens below ∼100 K, in connection ...

Radio-frequency compressed ultrafast electron diffraction has been used to probe the coherent and incoherent coupling of impulsive electronic excitation at 1.55 eV (800 nm) to optical and acoustic phonon modes directly from the perspective of the lattice degrees of freedom. A biexponential suppression of diffracted intensity due to relaxation of the electronic system into incoherent phonons is ...

Ultrafast coherent generation of acoustic phonons is studied in a semiconductor optical microcavity. The confinement of the light pulse amplifies both the generation and the detection of phonons. In addition, the standing wave character of the photon field modifies the generation and detection phonon bandwidth. Coherent generation experiments in an acoustic nanocavity embedded in an optical mic...

We derive analytically the interface and confined polar optical-phonon modes for spherical quantum dots with wurtzite crystal structure. While the frequency of confined optical phonons in zincblende nanocrystals is equal to that of the bulk crystal phonons, the confined polar optical phonons in wurtzite nanocrystals are shown to have a discrete spectrum of frequencies different from those in bu...

Polar optical-phonon modes are derived analytically for spheroidal quantum dots with wurtzite crystal structure. The developed theory is applied to freestanding spheroidal ZnO quantum dots and to spheroidal ZnO quantum dots embedded into a MgZnO crystal. The wurtzite (anisotropic) quantum dots are shown to have strongly different polar optical-phonon modes in comparison with zincblende (isotrop...

Phonons, i.e., quanta of lattice vibrations, manifest themselves practically in all electrical, thermal and optical phenomena in semiconductors and other material systems. Reduction of the size of electronic devices below the acoustic phonon mean free path creates a new situation for phonon propagation and interaction. From one side, it complicates heat removal from the downscaled devices. From...