Radiation temperature and radiation power of thermal phonon radiators using diamond as transmission medium

Abstract

Thermal phonon radiators allow short pulses of incoherent thermal phonon beams to generate in a simple manner and the center frequency of the broad frequency distribution of the emitted phonons to vary up to the acoustic cutoff frequencies. This paper reports experimental investigations of the connection between radiation temperature and radiation power using films of several metals (copper, nickel, gold, and lead) as phonon radiators on diamond. The measured dependencies of the radiation temperature on the radiation power show that the radiation process is by far better described by assuming acoustic mismatch between radiator and transmission medium than using the model of perfect match. Some metals on diamond give a phonon radiation power of several kilowatts per square millimeter radiator area. With a diamond substrate held at liquid‐helium temperature, a radiation temperature of a few hundred degrees Kelvin was achieved. If the phonon radiator deposited on diamond is immersed in liquid helium, the transport of heat to the liquid helium becomes important at radiation temperature below 30 °K and is dominant below 20 °K. This effect can be explained by assuming a thin vapor layer between the hot radiator and the liquid helium, and a gas kinetic energy transfer.