Excitation of ultrashort strain pulses due to absorption of optical radiation by semiconductors

A theoretical study is made of the various regimes of generation of hypersonic waves due to absorption of picosecond light pulses in semiconductors. It is shown that the main contribution to the excited hypersonic pulses may be due to a deformation mechanism involving a change in the equilibrium density of a semiconductor when electron-hole pairs are excited optically. The conditions under which the profile of a strain pulse is identical with the envelope of an optical pulse are established.