High frequency dynamics in a monatomic glass

The high frequency dynamics of glassy Selenium has been studied by Inelastic X-ray Scattering at beamline BL35XU (SPring-8). The high quality of the data allows one to pinpoint the existence of a dispersing acoustic mode for wavevectors ($Q$) of $1.5<Q<12.5$ nm$^{-1}$, helping to clarify a previous contradiction between experimental and numerical results. The sound velocity shows a positive dispersion, exceeding the hydrodynamic value by $\approx$ 10% at $Q<3.5$ nm$^{-1}$. The $Q^2$ dependence of the sound attenuation $\Gamma(Q)$, reported for other glasses, is found to be the low-$Q$ limit of a more general $\Gamma(Q) \propto \Omega(Q)^2$ law which applies also to the higher $Q$ region, where $\Omega(Q)\propto Q$ no longer holds.Comment: Phys. Rev. Lett. (Accepted

Hard sphere-like dynamics in a non hard sphere liquid

The collective dynamics of liquid Gallium close to the melting point has been studied using Inelastic X-ray Scattering to probe lengthscales smaller than the size of the first coordination shell. %(momentum transfers, $Q$, $>$15 nm$^{-1}$). Although the structural properties of this partially covalent liquid strongly deviate from a simple hard-sphere model, the dynamics, as reflected in the quasi-elastic scattering, are beautifully described within the framework of the extended heat mode approximation of Enskog's kinetic theory, analytically derived for a hard spheres system. The present work demonstrates the applicability of Enskog's theory to non hard- sphere and non simple liquids.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, accepted in Phys. Rev. Let

Bond stretching phonon softening and angle-resolved photoemission kinks in optimally doped Bi2Sr1.6La0.4Cu2O6 superconductors

We report the first measurement of the optical phonon dispersion in optimally doped single layer Bi2Sr1.6La0.4Cu2O6+delta using inelastic x-ray scattering. We found a strong softening of the Cu-O bond stretching phonon at about q=(0.25,0,0) from 76 to 60 meV, similar to the one reported in other cuprates. A direct comparison with angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy measurements taken on the same sample, revealed an excellent agreement in terms of energy and momentum between the ARPES nodal kink and the soft part of the bond stretching phonon. Indeed, we find that the momentum space where a 63 meV kink is observed can be connected with a vector q=(xi,0,0) with xi~0.22, which corresponds exactly to the soft part of the bond stretching phonon mode. This result supports an interpretation of the ARPES kink in terms of electron-phonon coupling.Comment: submited to PR

Magnetism dependent phonon anomaly in LaFeAsO observed via inelastic x-ray scattering

The phonon dispersion was measured at room temperature along (0,0,L) in the tetragonal phase of LaFeAsO using inelastic x-ray scattering. Spin-polarized first-principles calculations imposing various types of antiferromagnetic order are in better agreement with the experimental results than nonmagnetic calculations, although the measurements were made well above the magnetic ordering temperature, T_N. Splitting observed between two A_{1g} phonon modes at 22 and 26 meV is only observed in spin-polarized calculations. Magneto-structural effects similar to those observed in the AFe_2As_2 materials are confirmed present in LaFeAsO. The presence of Fe-spin is necessary to find reasonable agreement of the calculations with the measured spectrum well above T_N. On-site Fe and As force constants show significant softening compared to nonmagnetic calculations, however an investigation of the real-space force constants associates the magnetoelastic coupling with a complex renormalization instead of softening of a specific pairwise force.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figure

Softening of Cu-O bond stretching phonon in tetragonal HgBa2_2CuO4+δ_{4+\delta}

Phonons in nearly optimally doped HgBa$_2$CuO$_{4+\delta}$ were studied by inelastic X-ray scattering. The dispersion of the low energy modes is well described by a shell model, while the Cu-O bond stretching mode at high energy shows strong softening towards the zone boundary, which deviates strongly from the model. This seems to be common in the hole-doped high-$T_\mathrm{c}$ superconducting cuprates, and, based on this work, not related to a lattice distortion specific to each material.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. Let

Incommensurate phonon anomaly and the nature of charge density waves in cuprates

While charge density wave (CDW) instabilities are ubiquitous to superconducting cuprates, the different ordering wavevectors in various cuprate families have hampered a unified description of the CDW formation mechanism. Here we investigate the temperature dependence of the low energy phonons in the canonical CDW ordered cuprate La$_{1.875}$Ba$_{0.125}$CuO$_{4}$. We discover that the phonon softening wavevector associated with CDW correlations becomes temperature dependent in the high-temperature precursor phase and changes from a wavevector of 0.238 reciprocal space units (r.l.u.) below the ordering transition temperature up to 0.3~r.l.u. at 300~K. This high-temperature behavior shows that "214"-type cuprates can host CDW correlations at a similar wavevector to previously reported CDW correlations in non-"214"-type cuprates such as YBa$_{2}$Cu$_{3}$O$_{6+\delta}$. This indicates that cuprate CDWs may arise from the same underlying instability despite their apparently different low temperature ordering wavevectors.Comment: Accepted in Phys. Rev. X; 9 pages; 5 figures; 3 pages of supplementary materia