Thermal acoustic excitations with atomic-scale wavelengths in amorphous silicon
Abstract
The vibrational properties of glasses remain a topic of intense interest due to several unresolved puzzles, including the origin of the Boson peak and the mechanisms of thermal transport. Inelastic scattering measurements have revealed that amorphous solids support collective acoustic excitations with low THz frequencies despite the atomic disorder, but these frequencies are well below most of the thermal vibrational spectrum. Here, we report the observation of acoustic excitations with frequencies up to 10 THz in amorphous silicon. The excitations have atomic-scale wavelengths as short as 6 Å and exist well into the thermal vibrational frequencies. Simulations indicate that these high-frequency waves are supported due to the high group velocity and monatomic composition of a-Si, suggesting that other glasses with these characteristics may also exhibit such excitations. Our findings demonstrate that a substantial portion of thermal vibrational modes in amorphous materials can still be described as a phonon gas despite the lack of atomic order.
- Authors:
-
[2];
[2];
- California Inst. of Technology (CalTech), Pasadena, CA (United States). Div. of Engineering and Applied Science
- Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Material Science and Technology Div.
- Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States). Advanced Photon Source (APS)
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1526377
- Alternate Identifier(s):
- OSTI ID: 1524118; OSTI ID: 1526967
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC05-00OR22725; AC02-06CH11357
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- Physical Review Materials
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 3; Journal Issue: 6; Journal ID: ISSN 2475-9953
- Publisher:
- American Physical Society (APS)
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY
Citation Formats
Moon, Jaeyun, Hermann, Raphaël P., Manley, Michael E., Alatas, Ahmet, Said, Ayman H., and Minnich, Austin J. Thermal acoustic excitations with atomic-scale wavelengths in amorphous silicon. United States: N. p., 2019.
Web. doi:10.1103/PhysRevMaterials.3.065601.
Moon, Jaeyun, Hermann, Raphaël P., Manley, Michael E., Alatas, Ahmet, Said, Ayman H., & Minnich, Austin J. Thermal acoustic excitations with atomic-scale wavelengths in amorphous silicon. United States. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevMaterials.3.065601
Moon, Jaeyun, Hermann, Raphaël P., Manley, Michael E., Alatas, Ahmet, Said, Ayman H., and Minnich, Austin J. Mon .
"Thermal acoustic excitations with atomic-scale wavelengths in amorphous silicon". United States. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevMaterials.3.065601. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1526377.
@article{osti_1526377,
title = {Thermal acoustic excitations with atomic-scale wavelengths in amorphous silicon},
author = {Moon, Jaeyun and Hermann, Raphaël P. and Manley, Michael E. and Alatas, Ahmet and Said, Ayman H. and Minnich, Austin J.},
abstractNote = {The vibrational properties of glasses remain a topic of intense interest due to several unresolved puzzles, including the origin of the Boson peak and the mechanisms of thermal transport. Inelastic scattering measurements have revealed that amorphous solids support collective acoustic excitations with low THz frequencies despite the atomic disorder, but these frequencies are well below most of the thermal vibrational spectrum. Here, we report the observation of acoustic excitations with frequencies up to 10 THz in amorphous silicon. The excitations have atomic-scale wavelengths as short as 6 Å and exist well into the thermal vibrational frequencies. Simulations indicate that these high-frequency waves are supported due to the high group velocity and monatomic composition of a-Si, suggesting that other glasses with these characteristics may also exhibit such excitations. Our findings demonstrate that a substantial portion of thermal vibrational modes in amorphous materials can still be described as a phonon gas despite the lack of atomic order.},
doi = {10.1103/PhysRevMaterials.3.065601},
journal = {Physical Review Materials},
number = 6,
volume = 3,
place = {United States},
year = {2019},
month = {6}
}
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