Temperature and pressure dependences of the properties and phase transition in paratellurite (TeO2: Ultrasonic,dielectric and Raman and Brillouin scattering results

The effects of temperature and pressure on the ultrasonic propagation properties, dielectric constants and the Raman and Brillouin spectra in paratellurite (TeO₂) were investigated with emphasis on the behavior in the vicinity of the newly-discovered, pressure-induced phase transition. The transition is found to be second-order and purely strain-induced, driven by a soft shear acoustic mode propagating along a <110〉 and polarized along a (110) crystal direction. Such pure-strain transitions were previously discussed by Anderson and Blount and the transition in paratellurite is the first observation of this kind of transition. No evidence was found for any coupling of the soft mode to any other acoustic or optic mode, although small anomalies associated with lattice strains accompanying the transition were observed in some of the elastic and dielectric constants. Analysis of the effective elastic constant C, governing the soft mode velocity indicates that, within experimental uncertainty, the transition can be described by mean-field theory. Although the apparent attenuation of the soft mode increased significantly near the transition, it is concluded that this effect is probably due to the fact that the phase and group velocities are not parallel rather than to intrinsic dissipative processes in the crystal. With the exception of C₄₄, the remaining elastic constants and Raman-active phonon frequencies displayed normal increases with pressure. No soft Raman-active modes were observed in either phase. The static dielectric constants ?₁ are large, due to the large electronic polarizability of TeO₂, and the anisotropy in ? results almost entirely from the anisotropy in the optical dielectric constants ?_∞. In the low pressure tetragonal phase both ?_a and ?_c exhibit normal temperature dependences and ?_c decreases with pressure; however, ?_a exhibits an anomalous increase with pressure. Temperature, pressure and uniaxial stress measurements are combined to evaluate the various contributions to the temperature and pressure dependences of ?. Combining the ? data with available i.r. measurements demonstrated that the generalized Lyddane-Sachs-Teller relation is well obeyed for TeO₂. Finally, the Szigetti effective charge ratios were determined for the lowest frequency IR-active modes. These ratios were found to be quite low, being 0.27 and 0.18 for the a-axis responses, respectively, indicating that the bonding is highly covalent.