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PUBLICATIONS

Spontaneous Decay of a Soft Optical Phonon in the Relaxor Ferroelectric PbMg1/3Nb2/3O3

Published

Author(s)

C. Stock, Peter M. Gehring, R. A. Ewings, Guangyong Xu, Jiefang Li, Dwight Viehland, Haosu Luo

Abstract

We report the spontaneous decay of a soft, optical phonon in a solid. Using neutron spectroscopy, we find that specific phonon lifetimes in the relaxor PbMg1/3Nb2/3O3 are anomalously short within well-defined ranges of energy and momentum. This behavior is independent of ferroelectric order and occurs when the optical phonon with a specific energy and momentum can kinematically decay into two acoustic phonons with lower phase velocity.We interpret the well-known relaxor "waterfall" effect as a form of quasiparticle decay analogous to that previously reported in quantum spin liquids and quantum fluids.
Citation
Physical Review Materials
Volume
2
Issue
2
Pub Type
Journals

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Keywords

Lattice dynamics, phonons, quasiparticle decay, anharmonicity, relaxors, PMN, perovskite, neutron scattering
Condensed matter

Citation

Stock, C. , Gehring, P. , Ewings, R. , Xu, G. , Li, J. , Viehland, D. and Luo, H. (2018), Spontaneous Decay of a Soft Optical Phonon in the Relaxor Ferroelectric PbMg<sub>1/3</sub>Nb<sub>2/3</sub>O<sub>3</sub>, Physical Review Materials, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=925396 (Accessed December 26, 2024)

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Created February 12, 2018, Updated October 12, 2021