Stiffened Ultrathin Pt Films Confirmed by Acoustic-Phonon Resonances

Resonances of coherent acoustic phonons were excited and detected by femtosecond light pulses for determining the normal elastic constant of ultrathin platinum films. The elastic constant increases with the decrease of the film thickness, exceeds the bulk value at the thickness near 5 nm, and significantly increases at low temperatures. It shows a correlation with the normal lattice distance. Thus, this Letter provides evidence of the stiffness enhancement in ultrathin films caused by lattice anharmonicity.