Characteristics of Coherent Optical Phonons in a Hexagonal YMnO3 Thin Film

This paper reviews our recent study on a coherent optical phonon in a hexagonal YMnO3 thin film together with related optical studies in hexagonal RMnO3 (R = Y, Lu, Ho) compounds. Coherent phonons have been observed in RMnO3 compounds by pump-probe spectroscopy with subpicosecond laser pulses, whereas the observation of coherent optical phonons was reported only in LuMnO3. Recently, we succeeded in the observation of the coherent optical phonon in a YMnO3 thin film. The generation process of the coherent optical phonon is assigned to a displacive mechanism, which is identical to that in LuMnO3. The coherent optical phonon is observed in the temperature range from 10 K to room temperature, while the oscillation intensity strongly decreases as the temperature increases to the Néel temperature of ~70 K from a lower temperature range. It is interesting that the temperature dependence is largely different from that in LuMnO3. We describe that the result can be qualitatively explained by the property of an isostructural transition around the Néel temperature in RMnO3 compounds. In addition, we briefly discuss ultrafast incoherent responses of excited electronic states from the viewpoint of the excitation photon energy of laser pulses.