Abstract
ATTENUATION of ultrasonic waves arising from lattice phonon viscous drag is known in insulators such as quartz1 and in semiconductors, notably germanium2 and silicon3. Here we report that this damping effect is large in the semi-metal HgTe. When the thermal phonon mean free path is small compared with the sound wavelength (ωτth≪1), as in the present experiment, the lattice phonon damping for an isotropic solid is given by4 where ɣ̄ is an average Gruneisen parameter and K the lattice thermal conductivity. For HgTe (Θ = 141° K) (ref. 5) the Debye velocity of sound v̄ is 1.53 × 105 cm s−1, considerably less than that in germanium (3.55 × 105 cm s−1), silicon (5.87 × 105 cm s−1) or quartz (4.39 × 105 cm s−1) (ref. 3). A stronger thermal wave attenuation would therefore be expected in HgTe. The effect can be observed at comparatively low frequency.
Similar content being viewed by others
Article PDF
References
Bömmel, H. E., and Dransfeld, K., Phys. Rev., 117, 1245 (1960).
Dobbs, E. R., Chick, B. B., and Truell, R., Phys. Rev. Lett., 3, 332 (1959).
Mason, W. P., Physical Acoustics, III B (1965), (edit. by Mason, W. P.), 235–86 (Academic Press, 1965).
Woodruff, T. O., and Ehrenreich, H., Phys. Rev., 123, 1553 (1961).
Alper, T., and Saunders, G. A., J. Phys. Chem. Solids, 28, 1637 (1967).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
ALPER, T., SAUNDERS, G. Phonon Viscosity Attenuation of Ultrasonic Waves in HgTe. Nature 218, 83 (1968). https://doi.org/10.1038/218083a0
Received:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/218083a0
Comments
By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.