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Updated: Oct 9, 2026

Hyperspectral Imaging as a Tool to Study Optical Anisotropy in Lanthanide-Based Molecular Single Crystals
Published on: April 14, 2020
Isotope-disorder-induced line broadening of phonons in the Raman spectra of SiC
S Rohmfeld1, M Hundhausen, L Ley
1Institut für Technische Physik, Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erwin-Rommel-Strasse 1, D-91058 Erlangen, Germany.
Abstract:
The width of phonon lines in the Raman spectra of ideal isotopically pure solids is determined by inelastic scattering processes. In solids that contain a mixture of different isotopes of one atomic constituent, elastic scattering due to isotopic mass disorder opens up decay channels that result in additional line broadening. We use different polytypes of SiC with an associated number of Raman active modes in order to experimentally validate the proportionality between linewidth and phonon density of states predicted by a simple elastic scattering theory.
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