Observation of organ-pipe acoustic excitations in supported thin films

Abstract

Brillouin light scattering from supported silicon oxynitride films reveal an extended series of acoustic excitations occurring at regular frequency intervals when the mode wave vector is perpendicular to the film surface. These periodic peaks are identified as distinct standing wave excitations that, similar to harmonics of an open-ended organ pipe, occur due to the boundary conditions imposed by the free surface and substrate-film interface. The surface ripple and volume elasto-optic scattering mechanisms contribute to the scattering cross sections and lead to dramatic interference effects at low frequencies where the surface corrugations play a dominant role. The transformation of these standing wave excitations to modes with finite in-plane wave vectors is also investigated. The results are discussed in the framework of a Green’s-function formalism that reproduces the experimental features and illustrate the importance of the standing modes in evaluating the longitudinal elastic properties of the films.