Acoustic attenuation in ferroelectric Sn2P2S6 crystals

The temperature and frequency dependencies of sound attenuation for the proper uniaxial ferroelectric Sn₂P₂S₆, which has a strong nonlinear interaction of the polar soft optic and fully symmetrical optic modes that is related to the triple well potential, were studied by Brillouin spectroscopy. It was found that the sound velocity anomaly is described in the Landau-Khalatnikov approximation with one relaxation time. For explanation of the observed temperature and frequency dependencies of the sound attenuation in the ferroelectrric phase, the accounting of several relaxation times is needed and, for quantitative calculations, the mode Gruneisen coefficients are more appropriate as interacting parameters than are the electrostrictive coefficients. Relaxational sound attenuation by domain walls also appears in the ferroelectric phase of Sn₂P₂S₆ crystals.