Time-resolved Raman studies of the decay of the longitudinal optical phonons in wurtzite GaN

Decay of the longitudinal-optical (LO) phonons in wurtzite GaN has been studied by subpicosecond time-resolved Raman spectroscopy. Our experimental results show that among the various possible decay channels, the LO phonons in wurtzite GaN decay primarily into a large wave-vector TO and a large wave-vector LA or TA phonon. These experimental results an consistent with the recent theoretical calculations of the phonon dispersion curves for wurtzite GaN. (C) 1998 American Institute of Physics.