Pressure dependent optical phonon anharmonicity in GaP

The asymmetric Raman line shape of the TO(Γ) phonon in GaP has been carefully measured under hydrostatic pressure up to 87 kbar (room temperature). At high pressure the peak becomes symmetric and a weak sideband emerges. These results can be explained as due to the third order anharmonic interaction of TO(Γ) with the combination modes TA + LA(≈ X). A calculation of this effect, based on the measured phonon dispersion of GaP, is successful in fitting the observed line shape at all pressures. The anharmonic coupling strength for the decay TO(Γ) → TA + LA(≈ X) is found to decrease linearly with pressure by an appreciable amount.