Percolation transitions in compressed SiO glasses.

Amorphous-amorphous transformations under pressure are generally explained by changes in the local structure from low- to higher-fold coordinated polyhedra. However, as the notion of scale invariance at the critical thresholds has not been addressed, it is still unclear whether these transformations behave similarly to true phase transitions in related crystals and liquids. Here we report ab initio-based calculations of compressed silica (SiO) glasses, showing that the structural changes from low- to high-density amorphous structures occur through a sequence of percolation transitions.

Non network-former cations in oxide glasses spotted by Raman scattering.

The depolarized Raman spectra can be used as a probe to reveal the presence of non-network formers in oxide glasses. Two spectral responses involving the cations are observed below 400 cm in more than 30 compositions of binary and ternary aluminosilicates. One of the two bands arises solely from cations close to non-bridging oxygen providing thereby a simple test for qualifying the polymerization state of the glass.

Raman Open Database: first interconnected Raman-X-ray diffraction open-access resource for material identification.

Detailed crystallographic information provided by X-ray diffraction (XRD) is complementary to molecular information provided by Raman spectroscopy. Accordingly, the combined use of these techniques allows the identification of an unknown compound without ambiguity. However, a full combination of Raman and XRD results requires an appropriate and reliable reference database with complete information.

Relaxor Ferroelectrics: Back to the Single-Soft-Mode Picture.

The fluctuations of electric polarization in a disordered ferroelectric substance, relaxor crystal PbMg_{1/3}Nb_{2/3}O_{3} (PMN), were studied using a nonlinear inelastic light-scattering technique, hyper-Raman scattering, within a 5-100  cm^{-1} spectral interval and in a broad temperature range from 20 to 900 K. The split ferroelectric mode reveals a local anisotropy of up to about 400 K. Spectral anomalies observed at higher temperatures are explained as due to avoided crossing of the single primary polar soft mode with a temperature-independent, nonpolar spectral feature near 45  cm^{-1}, known from Raman scattering.

Elastic Constants, Optical Phonons, and Molecular Relaxations in the High Temperature Plastic Phase of the CHNHPbBr Hybrid Perovskite.

Low frequency dynamics has been studied in a CHNHPbBr hybrid perovskite single crystal by using four different spectroscopy techniques: coherent inelastic neutron, Raman and Brillouin scatterings, and ultrasound measurements. Sound velocities were measured over five decades in energy to yield the complete set of elastic constants in a hybrid halide perovskite crystal in the pseudocubic plastic phase. The C shear elastic constant is very small, leading to a particularly low resistance to shear stress.

Raman response of network modifier cations in alumino-silicate glasses.

Raman scattering is performed in three sets of aluminosilicate glasses with light cations and concentrations varying from peralcaline to peraluminate domain. The depolarized spectra highlight two cation modes below ∼400 cm(-1). Comparison with infrared data reveals very stringent selection rules providing as much additional information for a vibrational analysis.

Role of zinc and niobium in the giant piezoelectric response of PbZn(1/3)Nb(2/3)O(3).

Relaxor ferroelectric perovskites are highly polarizable and can exhibit giant coupling between elastic strain and an applied electric field. Here, we report an in situ extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) study of a PbZn1/3Nb2/3O3 (PZN) single crystal as a function of the electric field. We show that the strong dipoles in the NbO6 octahedra bonds are aligned along the four ⟨011⟩ directions close to the orientation of the electric field, while a small reversible polar shift occurs for Zn in the direction of the electric field, i.

Hyper-Raman and Raman scattering from the polar modes of PbMg1/3Nb2/3O3.

Microhyper-Raman spectroscopy of PbMg(1/3)Nb(2/3)O(3) (PMN) single crystal is performed at room temperature. The use of an optical microscope working in backscattering geometry significantly reduces the LO signal, highlighting thereby the weak contributions underneath. We clearly identify the highest frequency transverse optic mode (TO3) in addition to the previously observed soft TO-doublet at low frequency and TO2 at intermediate frequency.

Soft mode doublet in PbMg{1/3}Nb{2/3}O{3} relaxor investigated with hyper-Raman scattering.

Hyper-Raman scattering experiments suggest that a splitting of the lowest F{1u}-symmetry mode of PbMg{1/3}Nb{2/3}O{3} crystal occurs in a wide temperature range around its Burns temperature T{d}≈630  K. The upper-frequency component, earlier investigated by inelastic neutron scattering experiments above T{d}, appears to be underdamped even hundred of degrees below T{d}. The lower-frequency component, known below T{d} from far-IR spectroscopy, actually becomes underdamped above T{d}.

Inter-tetrahedra bond angle of permanently densified silicas extracted from their Raman spectra.

Relative Raman scattering intensities are obtained in three samples of vitreous silica of increasing density. The variation of the intensity upon densification is very different for bending and stretching modes. For the former we find a Raman coupling-to-light coefficient [Formula: see text].

Hyper-Raman scattering from vitreous boron oxide: coherent enhancement of the boson peak.

Hyper-Raman scattering spectra of vitreous B(2)O(3) are compared to Raman scattering ones. Particular attention is given to the low-frequency boson peak which relates to out-of-plane rigid librations of planar structural units, mostly boroxols. While the Raman strength can be accounted for by the motions of single units, the hyper-Raman signal exhibits a unequaled enhancement due to coherent librations of several boroxols.

Hyper-raman scattering observation of the boson peak in vitreous silica.

Hyper-Raman spectroscopy is used to investigate low frequency vibrations of various silica glasses. A strong boson peak is observed. The corresponding modes are inactive in infrared and Raman spectra, and are nonacoustic in nature.