Ultrafast optical generation of coherent phonons in ${\mathrm{CdTe}}_{1-x}{\mathrm{Se}}_x$ quantum dots

We report on the impulsive generation of coherent optical phonons in ${\mathrm{CdTe}}_{0.68}{\mathrm{Se}}_{0.32}$ nanocrystallites embedded in a glass matrix. Pump-probe experiments using femtosecond laser pulses were performed by tuning the laser central energy to resonate with the absorption edge of the nanocrystals. We identify two longitudinal optical phonons, one longitudinal acoustic phonon and a fourth mode of a mixed longitudinal-transverse nature. The amplitude of the optical phonons as a function of the laser central energy exhibits a resonance that is well described by a model based on impulsive stimulated Raman scattering. The phases of the coherent phonons reveal coupling between different modes. At low power density excitations, the frequency of the optical coherent phonons deviates from values obtained from spontaneous Raman scattering. This behavior is ascribed to the presence of electronic impurity states which modify the nanocrystal dielectric function and, thereby, the frequency of the infrared-active phonons.