Phonon stop bands in amorphous superlattices

In periodically layered media the phonon-dispersion relation shows energy ranges in which phonon propagation is not possible. The existence of such phonon stop bands in crystalline superlattices has been observed in work by V. Narayanamurti, H. L. St\"ormer, M. A. Chin, A. C. Gossard, and W. Wiegman [Phys. Rev. Lett. 43, 2012 (1979)]. In this Communication we report the observation of phonon stop bands in amorphous superlattices. The filter characteristic of these amorphous superlattices is much sharper than in the case of the crystalline superlattices studied earlier. The investigated superlattices have been prepared by alternating evaporation of Si and SiO₂ layers as well as by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition of a-Si:H/a-SiNₓ:H films in a glow-discharge reactor.