Observation of folded-zone acoustical phonons by Raman scattering in amorphous Si-SiNxsuperlattices

Abstract
The excitation of folded-zone longitudinal acoustic phonons in a-Si:H–a-SiNx:H periodic multilayer structures is observed by Raman scattering. The energies of the two lowest folded phonon branches is followed by varying the lattice period and the laser frequency. The data are quantitatively explained by a description of the phonons in the elastic continuum limit.