Modulation of the propagation speed of mechanical waves in silicon quantum dots embedded in a silicon-nitride film

Using a vectorial picosecond self-diffraction method, we evaluate the modification of the speed of the sound in a silicon-nitride film containing silicon quantum dots prepared by remote plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition. Our non-contact technique is based on the stimulation of the electrostriction contribution to the nonlinearity of index exhibited by the sample in a multiwave mixing laser experiment. We identified the electronic birefringence using two of the incident beams to generate a self-diffraction signal, then, we modified the third order nonlinear response by means of the optical Kerr effect given by a phase-mismatched third beam which induced electrostriction. Our results indicated that the speed of the sound in a silicon-nitride film can be simultaneously tailored by an electronic nonlinear refractive index, and by an electrostriction effect, both resulting from silicon quantum dots doping. (C) 2012 Optical Society of America