Optically Induced Coherent Phonons in Bismuth Oxyiodide (BiOI) Nanoplatelets

Rieger, Sebastian; Fürmann, Tim; Stolarczyk, Jacek K. und Feldmann, Jochen (2021): Optically Induced Coherent Phonons in Bismuth Oxyiodide (BiOI) Nanoplatelets. In: Nano Letters, Bd. 21, Nr. 18: S. 7887-7893

Abstract

Bismuth oxyiodide (BiOI) is a promising material for photocatalysis combining intriguing optical and structural properties. We show that excitation by a femtosecond laser pulse creates coherent phonons inducing a time-variant oscillating modulation of the optical density. We find that the two underlying frequencies originate from lattice vibrations along the [001] crystallographic axis, the stacking direction of oppositely charged layers in BiOI. This is consistent with a subpicosecond charge separation driven by a built-in dipolar field. This partially screens the field, launching coherent phonons. Further, we determine the two major dephasing mechanisms that lead to the loss of vibronic coherence: (i) the anharmonic decay of an optical phonon into two acoustic phonons and (ii) phonon-carrier scattering. Our results provide a direct demonstration of the presence of an electric field in BiOI along the [001] axis and show its role in efficient charge separation that is crucial for photocatalytic applications of BiOI.

• Dokumententyp: Zeitschriftenartikel
• Fakultät: Physik
• Themengebiete: 500 Naturwissenschaften und Mathematik > 530 Physik
• ISSN: 1530-6984
• Sprache: Englisch