Debye-Waller factor through the glass transition temperature in a-selenium, by incoherent inelastic neutron scattering

Abstract

We report, in this work, Incoherent Inelastic Neutron Scattering (IINS) measurements in amorphous bulk selenium. Taking into account the low frequency Vibrational Density-of-States(VDOS), we study the modification introduced in the Debye-Waller factor by increasing temperature through the glass transition temperature ( T g ). The occurrence, in the vibrational density-of-states, of a ω 2 dependence in the acoustic region, allowed us to apply the Debye theory from which the variations of the Deybe-Waller factor are calculated in addition. It is shown that the main contribution to it is given by the acoustic region of the vibrational density of states and has a faster increase for temperatures above T g .