Phonon anharmonicity in bulk Td-MoTe2

Abstract

We examine anharmonic contributions to the optical phonon modes in bulk Td-MoTe2 through temperature-dependent Raman spectroscopy. At temperatures ranging from 100 K to 200 K, we find that all modes redshift linearly with temperature in agreement with the Grüneisen model. However, below 100 K, we observe nonlinear temperature-dependent frequency shifts in some modes. We demonstrate that this anharmonic behavior is consistent with the decay of an optical phonon into multiple acoustic phonons. Furthermore, the highest frequency Raman modes show large changes in intensity and linewidth near T ≈ 250 K that correlate well with the Td→1T′ structural phase transition. These results suggest that phonon-phonon interactions can dominate anharmonic contributions at low temperatures in bulk Td-MoTe2, an experimental regime that is currently receiving attention in efforts to understand Weyl semimetals.

Document Details

Document Type
Pub Defense Publication
Publication Date
Jul 18, 2016
Source ID
10.1063/1.4959099

Entities

People

  • Albert V Davydov
  • Irina Kalish
  • Iris R. Stone
  • Jaydeep Joshi
  • Patrick M Vora
  • Ryan Beams
  • Sergiy Krylyuk

Organizations

  • George Mason University
  • National Institute of Standards and Technology
  • National Research Council
  • Office of Naval Research

Tags

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Materials Science and Engineering.
  • Quantum Chemistry
  • Quantum Dot Semiconductor Device Photonics and Graphene Optoelectronic Materials and THz Physics.