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Updated: Sep 21, 2025

High-speed Continuous-wave Stimulated Brillouin Scattering Spectrometer for Material Analysis
Published on: September 22, 2017
100th Anniversary of Brillouin Scattering: Impact on Materials Science
1Division of Materials Science, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba 305-8573, Japan.
Abstract:
L. Brillouin predicted inelastic light scattering by thermally excited sound waves in 1922. Brillouin scattering is a non-contact and non-destructive method to measure sound velocity and attenuation. It is possible to investigate the elastic properties of gases, liquids, glasses, and crystals. Various kinds of phase transitions, i.e., liquid-glass transitions, crystallization, polymorphism, and denaturation have been studied by changing the temperature, pressure, time, and external fields such as the electric, magnetic, and stress fields. Nowadays, Brillouin scattering is extensively used to measure various elementary excitations and quasi-elastic scattering in the gigahertz range between 0.1 and 1000 GHz. A brief history, spectroscopic methods, and Brillouin scattering studies in materials science on ferroelectric materials, glasses, and proteins are reviewed.
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