Sonoluminescence and acoustically driven optical phenomena in solids and solid–gas interfaces

• Published in: Physics reports 1999, Vol.311 (1), p.1-46
• Main Authors: Ostrovskii, I.V., Korotchenkov, O.A., Goto, T., Grimmeiss, H.G.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Acoustic driving; Defect charge; Exciton lifetime; Gas discharge; Granular dynamics; Sonoluminescence
• ISSN: 0370-1573; 1873-6270
• DOI: 10.1016/S0370-1573(98)00079-9

During the last decade, significant progress has been achieved in our understanding of the generation of light in acoustic fields, a research area which is known as sonoluminescence (SL). Some of the data obtained, including SL effects in water, have previously been reviewed in the literature. This article takes a broader view and reports on experimental evidence of SL phenomena in solids and solid–gas interfaces as well as on interpretations and potential applications. It is shown that the understanding of SL is facilitated when couched in the language of moving dislocations which produce vacancy–interstitial pairs of host atoms. Radiative transitions in defect pairs would then constitute the SL effect in solids. It is further shown that the occurrence of electric fields due to the generated point defects and charged dislocations produces a number of interesting phenomena. These fields are particularly important for the occurrence of SL at solid–gas interfaces which has been suggested to be initiated by gas discharges due to strong electric fields of charged dislocations. The appearance of acoustically driven internal electric fields is shown to lead to remarkable effects with regard to exciton lifetimes. The storage of photogenerated electron–hole pairs in the moving piezoelectric potential of acoustic waves allows prolonged exciton recombination times of μs in InGaAs/GaAs quantum well structures. The intertwining of acoustically driven long-range electric fields and microfields occurring at the exciton sites turns out to be a prerequisite for attaining the lifetime tuning of the bound excitons in CdS crystals. The review is concluded by discussing sonoluminescence effects in granular systems. Implications for the relevance of this effect to the dynamical behavior of granular media are outlined.