Eur. Phys. J. Plus (2022) 137: 326
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/s13360-022-02516-x

Regular Article

Piezoelectric lattice vibrations in binary nitrides at optical frequencies

Department of Physics, National Institute of Technology, 492010, Raipur, India

^b bksahoo.phy@nitrr.ac.in

Received: 7 January 2022
Accepted: 23 February 2022
Published online: 10 March 2022

Abstract

Piezoelectric nature of wurtzite binary nitrides (AlN, GaN and InN) has been extensively utilized in different devices and experiments from DC to microwaves frequencies. At optical frequencies, lattice vibrations in binary nitrides are associated with ionic polarizations. Using classical dispersion theory, a relationship is formulated involving the dielectric constant (${\epsilon }_{\mathit{jj}}$) and the piezoelectric coefficient ($d_{\mathit{jj}}$) of binary nitrides. The relation is utilized to investigate the piezoelectric lattice vibrations in binary nitrides at optical frequencies, and a close agreement between the computed and the experimental value of $d_{\mathit{jj}}$ is found. At optical frequencies, there are no direct experimental methods exist at present for measurement of $d_{\mathit{jj}}$; however, the proposed relation can help to determine $d_{\mathit{jj}}$ from infrared reflection measurement. The study reveals that application of piezoelectric nature of binary nitrides could be extended to optical frequencies for integrated photonics, sensors, and photo detectors; and a discussion to generate phase coherent acoustic phonons to modulate thermal conduction in optoelectronic devices is presented.