Atomic Vibrational Dynamics of Thin Films.pdfVIP

Hyperfine Interactions 144/145: 65–76, 2002. 65 © 2003 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands. Atomic Vibrational Dynamics of Thin Films Studied by Nuclear Resonant Inelastic X-Ray Scattering: Amorphous Tb1−x Fex Alloys 1 1,∗ 1 2 T. RUCKERT , W. KEUNE , B. SAHOO , W. STURHAHN , 2 2 3 T. S. TOELLNER , E. E. ALP and R. RÖHLSBERGER 1Institut für Physik, Gerhard-Mercator-Universität Duisburg, D-47048 Duisburg, Germany; e-mail: keune@uni-duisburg.de 2Advanced Photon Source, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, IL 60439, USA 3Fachbereich Physik, Universität Rostock, D-18055 Rostock, Germany Abstract. Nuclear resonant inelastic X-ray scattering (NRIXS) of 14.4125 keV synchrotron ra- diation was used to measure directly the partial vibrational density of states (VDOS), g(E), of vapor-quenched amorphous Tb1−x 57Fex thin film alloys (0.20 x 0.82). The structure of the samples was characterized by X-ray diffraction and Mössbauer spectroscopy. The behavior of the Lamb–Mössbauer factor obtained from measured vibrational excitation probability densities indicates vibrational softening with increasing Tb content. A plot of g(E)/E2 versus E proves the existence of non-Debye-like vibrational excitations below about 10 meV, becoming more pronounced with rising Tb content. Key words: nuclear resonance absorption, inelastic X-ray scattering, Mössbauer effect, amorphous Tb–Fe thin films, phonon density of states. 1. Introduction Since the discovery of nuclear resonant inelastic X-ray scattering (NRIXS) of 14.4125 keV synchrotron radiation by 57Fe nuclei [1–3], this technique has evolved as a powerful method to explore atomic vibrationa