Effect of probe pulse duration in picosecond ultrasonics

Picosecond ultrasonics is a powerful tool for nanoscale metrology, giving access to dimensions and mechanical, thermal, and optical properties of nanomaterials. By monitoring the temporal evolution of the interaction of light with coherent acoustic phonons, also known as Brillouin oscillations, phonon lifetime and optical absorption can be measured. However, the extraction of these quantities can be inaccurate due to the common assumption of the infinite coherence length of probe pulses. Here, we demonstrate the effect of probe pulse duration on picosecond ultrasonic measurements numerically and experimentally. We establish a model that shows how the probe coherence length affects the measured signal loss and how we can overcome this limitation and measure an upper limit of the acoustic attenuation factor. The model is verified experimentally on a GaAs bulk substrate by varying the probe pulse duration, showing a strong effect for sub-100 fs pulses. Finally, we applied to CH3NH3PbBr3, where we reveal a high acoustic attenuation factor, which is in line with recent claims of strong anharmonicity in halide perovskites.