Vibrational Spectra of Layer Crystals

Abstract

Abstract Layer crystals have received considerable attention of spectroscopists because of the wide range of electrical and optical properties they possess. The group of layered chalcogenide crystals contains insulators, semiconductors, metals, and superconductors at moderately high temperature. The layered halide crystals act as reliable hosts for Jahn-Teller, ESR, and other optical experiments. The layerlike nature of such crystals leads to experimentally distinguishable lattice optical properties. The existence of layer and crystal symmetries is clearly manifested in the vibrational spectra of these crystals which have been determined in recent years by means of infrared and Raman investigations of the zone center modes. The large anisotropy of electrical properties leads to LO-TO splitting, while the small interlayer interaction gives rise to Davydov-type splitting besides low frequency interlayer modes. Thus investigations of such crystals have been a considerable addition to our knowledge of the vib...