Temperature dependence of acoustic attenuation in silicon

This paper presents a comprehensive calculation of attenuation of ultrasonic waves in silicon. We have developed a computer program to calculate the attenuation using a much wider spectrum of thermal phonon modes than that used in Mason's pure-mode formulation. The program takes into consideration the dependence of Mason's integral on the cutoff frequency supported by the lattice. A comparison of these refined calculations with that using Mason's pure-mode scheme is presented for longitudinal waves along the [100], [110], and [111] directions and for transverse waves along the [100] and [110] directions in the temperature range 80--300 K. Use of experimentally measured relaxation times by Ilisavskii et al. in our program gives excellent agreement with experimental results. The results indicate essential validity of some of the objections raised against Mason's theory earlier by Barrett and Holland.