ABSTRACT
Single crystals of SmAl3(BO3)4 were synthesized by the group growth on seeds method. The crystal structure was solved using a single-crystal experiment and the purity of the bulk material was proved by the Rietveld method. This borate crystallizes in the monoclinic C2/c space group with unit-cell parameters a = 7.2386â (3), b = 9.3412â (5), c = 11.1013â (4)â Å and ß = 103.2240â (10)°. IR and Raman spectroscopic analyses confirmed the monoclinic structure of SmAl3(BO3)4. Under 532.1â nm excitation, luminescence spectra exhibit bands assignable to the transitions from 4G5/2 to 6H5/2, 6H7/2, 6H9/2 and 6H11/2. The similarity of the luminescence spectra of the trigonal and monoclinic polymorphs is explained by the minor role of Sm-O bond distortion and the primary role of rotational distortion of SmO6 octahedra. The smaller covalency of the Sm-O bond in alumoborates is deduced in comparison with galloborates. Calorimetric measurements did not reveal high-temperature structural phase transitions up to a temperature of 720â K.
ABSTRACT
Precursor dynamics of a cubic to tetragonal ferroelectric phase transition in BaTiO3 is studied by the accurate measurement of the second harmonic generation (SHG) integral intensities. A finite signal holds for the SHG integrated intensity above the ferroelectric Curie temperature T(c)=403 K. Above the Burn's temperature T(d)≈580 K, the power law with the exponent γ=1 shows normal SHG nature originating from the hyper-Raman scattering by dynamical polar excitations, while, below T(d), a SHG signal from polar nanoregions becomes dominant with the larger exponent γ=2. Such a crossover of the power law exponent near T(d) is discussed on the basis of the effective Hamiltonian method and Monte Carlo simulation.
ABSTRACT
The Rayleigh-Brillouin light scattering is studied in the glass-forming picoline with emphasis to the temperature dependence of the Landau-Placzek ratio. It was found that the Landau-Placzek ratio is in good agreement with the theoretical prediction at T>T(A), where TA is the temperature of transition from an Arrhenius-like to a non-Arrhenius behavior for the α-relaxation time dependence on temperature. Below T(A) the Landau-Placzek ratio exceeds significantly the theoretical prediction. The finding is interpreted as the evidence of the locally favored structures, which presence in an equilibrium glass-forming liquid below T(A).
