We examine the influence at room temperature of the deposit of a water layer on the phonon dynamics of a solid. It is shown that the water wetting at the surface of an Alumina monocrystal has deep effects on acoustic phonons, propagating over several hundred microns distance and taking place on a relatively long time scale. The effect of the wetting at the boundary is two-fold: a hardening of both transverse and longitudinal acoustic phonons is observed as well as a relaxation of internal stresses. These acoustic phonon energy changes were observed by inelastic X-ray scattering up to 40 meV energy loss, allowing us to probe the solid at different depths from the surface.
@article{arxiv.2409.14318,
title = {Identification by Inelastic X-Ray scattering of bulk alteration of solid dynamics due to Liquid Wetting},
author = {M. Warburton and J. Ablett and J. -P. Rueff and P. Baroni and L. Paolasini and L. Noirez},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2409.14318},
year = {2024}
}