On the drastic temperature broadening of hard mode Raman lines of ferroelectric KDP type crystals near Tc

The drastic broadening of a few A₁ Raman lines of ferroelectric KH₂PO₄(KDP) and KH₂AsO₄(KDA) crystals have been measured at various temperatures near T_c. The results in KDP are in fair agreement with two different simplified expressions of linewidths, which are based on pseudospin-phonon interaction arguments. No such agreement is found between the results and a simplified linewidth expression derived from a theory based on soft mode-hard mode interaction arguments. The linewidths and the reciprocal of the proton spin-lattice relaxation time in KDP exhibit a very similar temperature dependence below T_c but behave differently above T_c. This phenomena is presented in detail, and discussed.