Observation of the onset of strong scattering on high frequency acoustic phonons in densified silica glass

The linewidth of longitudinal acoustic waves in densified silica glass is obtained by inelastic x-ray scattering. It increases with a high power alpha of the frequency up to a crossover where the waves experience strong scattering. We find that \alpha is at least 4, and probably larger. Resonance and hybridization of acoustic waves with the boson-peak modes seems to be a more likely explanation for these findings than Rayleigh scattering from disorder.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, to appear in Phys. Rev. Letter

Anharmonic vs. relaxational sound damping in glasses: II. Vitreous silica

The temperature dependence of the frequency dispersion in the sound velocity and damping of vitreous silica is reanalyzed. Thermally activated relaxation accounts for the sound attenuation observed above 10 K at sonic and ultrasonic frequencies. Its extrapolation to the hypersonic regime reveals that the anharmonic coupling to the thermal bath becomes important in Brillouin-scattering measurements. At 35 GHz and room temperature, the damping due to this anharmonicity is found to be nearly twice that produced by thermally activated relaxation. The analysis also reveals a sizeable velocity increase with temperature which is not related with sound dispersion. This suggests that silica experiences a gradual structural change that already starts well below room temperature.Comment: 13 pages with 8 figure

Proton Microprobe and Particle Induced X-Ray Emission (PIXE) Analysis for Studies of Pathological Brain Tissue

Particle Indiced X-ray Emission and proton microprobe analyses have been applied for the investigation of regional elemental distributions in connection with various pathological states in the brain. Malignant brain tumours and adjacent histologically intact tissue removed during surgery were analysed with PIXE. Systematic elemental variations, e.g., for calcium and selenium, were observed in the tumour front. The proton microprobe was applied to study the Ca and K concentrations in various cell strata in hippocampus following transient ischaemia in rat brain. Significant increases in the Ca level occurred in selectively vulnerable cells within 48 h after the ischaemia

Anharmonic vs. relaxational sound damping in glasses: I. Brillouin scattering from densified silica

This series discusses the origin of sound damping and dispersion in glasses. In particular, we address the relative importance of anharmonicity versus thermally activated relaxation. In this first article, Brillouin-scattering measurements of permanently densified silica glass are presented. It is found that in this case the results are compatible with a model in which damping and dispersion are only produced by the anharmonic coupling of the sound waves with thermally excited modes. The thermal relaxation time and the unrelaxed velocity are estimated.Comment: 9 pages with 7 figures, added reference

Observation of Changes in the Atomic and Electronic Structure of Single-Crystal YBa₂Cu₃O₆.₆ Accompanying Bromination

To ascertain the role of bromination in the recovery of superconductivity in underdoped YBa2Cu3O6+y (YBCO), we have performed polarized multiple-edge x-ray-absorption fine structure (XAFS) measurements on normal (y~0.6) and brominated (Br/Cu~1/30, y~0.6) single crystals with superconducting transitions at 63 and 89 K, respectively. The brominated sample becomes strongly heterogeneous on an atomic length scale. Approximately one-third of YBCO is locally decomposed yet incorporated as a well-ordered host lattice as nanoscale regions. The decomposed phase consists of heavily distorted domains with an order not following that of the host lattice. Structurally, these domains are fragments of the YBCO lattice that are discontinued along the Cu(1)-O(1) containing planes. The local structure is consistent with the cluster expansions: Y-O(2,3)8-Cu(2)8-..., Ba-O8-Cu(2)4Cu(1)2-..., and Cu-O4... about the Y, Ba, and Cu sites. Interatomic distances and Debye-Waller factors for the expansions were determined from fits to Y K-, Ba L3-, and Cu K-edge XAFS data at room temperature. Br K-edge data reveal that Br does not enter substitutionally or interstitially into the perfect YBCO lattice. However, Br does occupy the Cu(1) sites in a nanofragment of the YBCO lattice, forming Br-O(4)-Ba-Cu2(1)Cu(2)-... nanoclusters. From polarized measurements these nanoclusters were found to be almost randomly oriented with respect to the host crystal, and probably are the nucleus of the decomposed phase. This heterogeneity brings about the unusual structural and electronic properties of the normal state previously reported in the literature. Implications on for diffraction, transport, and magnetization measurements are discussed

Physical Origin of the Boson Peak Deduced from a Two-Order-Parameter Model of Liquid

We propose that the boson peak originates from the (quasi-) localized vibrational modes associated with long-lived locally favored structures, which are intrinsic to a liquid state and are randomly distributed in a sea of normal-liquid structures. This tells us that the number density of locally favored structures is an important physical factor determining the intensity of the boson peak. In our two-order-parameter model of the liquid-glass transition, the locally favored structures act as impurities disturbing crystallization and thus lead to vitrification. This naturally explains the dependence of the intensity of the boson peak on temperature, pressure, and fragility, and also the close correlation between the boson peak and the first sharp diffraction peak (or prepeak).Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure, An error in the reference (Ref. 7) was correcte

The crossover from propagating to strongly scattered acoustic modes of glasses observed in densified silica

Spectroscopic results on low frequency excitations of densified silica are presented and related to characteristic thermal properties of glasses. The end of the longitudinal acoustic branch is marked by a rapid increase of the Brillouin linewidth with the scattering vector. This rapid growth saturates at a crossover frequency Omega_co which nearly coincides with the center of the boson peak. The latter is clearly due to additional optic-like excitations related to nearly rigid SiO_4 librations as indicated by hyper-Raman scattering. Whether the onset of strong scattering is best described by hybridization of acoustic modes with these librations, by their elastic scattering (Rayleigh scattering) on the local excitations, or by soft potentials remains to be settled.Comment: 14 pages, 6 figures, to be published in a special issue of J. Phys. Condens. Matte