Collective excitations in liquid and glassy 3-methylpentane

Abstract

We present a detailed investigation of the terahertz vibrational dynamics of 3-methylpentane performed by means of high-resolution inelastic x-ray scattering (IXS). We probe the dynamics in a large temperature range, which includes the glass, the supercooled liquid, and the liquid phases. The characteristic frequency of the excitations follows a well-defined dispersion curve extending beyond $8\phantom{\rule{4pt}{0ex}}{\mathrm{nm}}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$ at all the investigated temperatures, indicating the persistence of a solidlike behavior also in the liquid phase. This implies the existence of a pseudo-Brillouin zone whose size compares surprisingly well with the periodicity inferred from the first sharp diffraction peak in the static structure factor. We show that, in the investigated temperature range, both sizes undergo a variation of about 15%--20%, comparable to that of the average intermolecular distance. We finally show that the IXS sound velocity coincides with the infinite frequency sound velocity previously inferred from visible and ultraviolet Brillouin spectroscopy data. This analysis confirms the role of the shear relaxation processes in determining the variation with frequency of the apparent sound velocity.