We report measurements of acoustic phonon emission from a weakly coupled AlAs/GaAs superlattice (SL) under vertical electron transport. The phonons were detected using superconducting bolometers. A peak (resonance) was observed in emission parallel to the SL growth axis when the electrical energy drop per SL period matched the energy of the first SL mini-Brillouin zone-center phonon mode. This peak was mirrored by an increase of the differential conductance of the SL. These results are evidence for stimulated emission of terahertz phonons as previously predicted theoretically and suggest that such a SL may form the basis of a SASER (sound amplification by stimulated emission of radiation) device.

In this paper, we describe bulk, free-standing, zinc-blende (cubic) GaN wafers grown by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy. We have grown GaN layers of up to 60 µm in thickness. We present the data from characterization measurements that confirm the cubic nature of the GaN crystals and show that the fraction of the material that is hexagonal in nature is not more than about 10% in the best thick samples. Cubic (0 0 1) GaN does not exhibit the spontaneous and piezoelectric polarization effects associated with (0 0 0 1) c-axis wurtzite GaN. Therefore, the free-standing GaN wafers we have grown would make ideal lattice-matched substrates for the growth of cubic GaN-based structures for blue and ultraviolet optoelectronic devices, and high-power and high-frequency electronic applications.

The energy relaxation rate for hot electrons in n-type GaN epilayers has been measured over the temperature range 1.5–300 K. Several samples grown by molecular-beam epitaxy and having different electron concentrations have been studied. At low electron temperatures (Te<20 K), the energy relaxation is via acoustic phonon emission. The magnitude and temperature dependence of the energy relaxation are found to be in good agreement with theoretical calculations using appropriate values of the deformation potential and piezoelectric coupling constants and ignoring screening. For Te⩾70 K, the dominant mechanism of energy loss is optic phonon emission. For the several samples studied, consistent values of the optic phonon energy and electron-optic phonon relaxation time, 90±4 meV and 5–10 fs, respectively, are measured. The energy agrees well with values obtained by other methods and the relaxation time is consistent with theoretical calculations of the Fröhlich interaction and indicate that hot phonon effects are absent up to 10−8 W/electron dissipation.

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We have generated coherent zone-folded longitudinal acoustic (LA) phonons by femtosecond pulse-laser excitation of a gallium arsenide/aluminum arsenide superlattice. Using the filter effect due to frequency-dependent scattering in the gallium arsenide substrate, we have determined the frequency spectrum of the LA phonons that leak out of the superlattice and propagate to a bolometer on the opposite face of the gallium arsenide substrate. We show that the phonon spectrum has a strong monochromatic component centered on ν=sLA/dSL, where dSL is the superlattice period and sLA is the phonon speed. We propose that such phonons may be used for phonon spectroscopy and in a range of “phonon optics” applications.