Picosecond acoustic phonon pulse generation in nickel and chromium

The generation mechanisms for picosecond acoustic phonon pulses excited by ultrashort optical pulses in metals with strong electron-phonon coupling are elucidated. By means of an interferometric probing technique to extract changes in optical phase and amplitude, the acoustic pulse shapes in the transition metals Ni and Cr are shown to be governed by both thermal and nonequilibrium electron diffusion. Quantitative comparison of the results with a model that takes into account the nonequilibrium electron dynamics and ultrasonic attenuation gives excellent agreement.