Anomalous penetration of short acoustic pulses into metal

Abstract

The propagation of acoustic pulses shorter than the electron relaxation time in a conductor is studied theoretically. It is shown that the nonlocal deformation interaction between the electron and ion subsystems creates a pulse in the metal forerunning the main signal, which propagates at the maximum electron velocity in the given direction and penetrates into the sample to the macroscopic depth of about the electron mean free path. The experimental procedure to measure directly the Fermi velocities using the above effect is developed. The nature of attenuation of the main signal and the shape of the forerunner are analyzed as functions of parameter ωt0 (t0 is pulse duration and ω the carrier frequency).

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Identifiers

DOI

10.1063/10.0032216

Citations and references