Experimental and theoretical studies of effects of anharmonicity and high-temperature disorder on Raman scattering in fluorite crystals
Some crystals with the fluorite structure, e.g. CaF 2 , SrF 2 , BaF 2 , SrCl 2 and PbF 2 , are known to exhibit a specific heat anomaly at temperatures T c well below the melting point. It is generally assumed that this anomaly is associated with the development of extensive disorder in the anion sublattice. To study this disorder we have carried out polarized Raman scattering investigations of these crystals in the temperature range 4-1420 K. Fluorite crystals have one Raman-active phonon with T 2g symmetry. We find th at the position and shape of this line below T c can be explained in detail by using third- and fourth-order anharmonicity. At T c and above additional scattering develops on the low-energy side of the T 2g phonon and this is accounted for by a theory of defect-induced scattering which includes effects of both anion vacancies and interstitials. Both force-constant and polarizability changes are considered in a nearest-neighbour approximation.