Origin of micron-scale propagation lengths of heat-carrying acoustic excitations in amorphous silicon

Abstract

The heat-carrying acoustic excitations of amorphous silicon are of interest because their mean free paths may approach micron scales at room temperature. Despite extensive investigation, the origin of the weak acoustic damping in the heat-carrying frequencies remains a topic of debate. Here, we report measurements of the thermal conductivity mean free path accumulation function in amorphous silicon thin films from 60 - 315 K using transient grating spectroscopy. With additional picosecond acoustics measurements and considering the known frequency-dependencies of damping mechanisms in glasses, we reconstruct the mean free paths from $\sim 0.1-3$ THz. The mean free paths are independent of temperature and exhibit a Rayleigh scattering trend over most of this frequency range. The observed trend is inconsistent with the predictions of numerical studies based on normal mode analysis but agrees with diverse measurements on other glasses. The micron-scale MFPs in amorphous Si arise from the absence of anharmonic or two-level system damping in the sub-THz frequencies, leading to heat-carrying acoustic excitations with room-temperature damping comparable to that of other glasses at cryogenic temperatures.