Local off-centering symmetry breaking in the high-temperature regime of SnTe

K. R. Knox, E. S. Bozin, C. D. Malliakas, M. G. Kanatzidis, and S. J. L. Billinge

Phys. Rev. B 89, 014102 – Published 3 January 2014

Abstract

The local structure of SnTe has been studied using atomic pair distribution function analysis of x-ray and neutron data. Evidence is found for a locally distorted high-temperature state, which emerges on warming from an undistorted rocksalt structure. The structural distortion appears rapidly over a relatively narrow temperature range from 300 to 400 K. A similar effect has been reported in PbTe and PbS and dubbed emphanisis; here we report on emphanisis in a compound that does not contain Pb. The analysis suggests that this effect is unrelated to the low-temperature ferroelectric state in SnTe.

Received 5 November 2013

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.89.014102

Authors & Affiliations

K. R. Knox¹, E. S. Bozin¹, C. D. Malliakas^2,3, M. G. Kanatzidis^2,3, and S. J. L. Billinge^1,4

¹Department of Condensed Matter Physics and Materials Science, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York 11973, USA
²Department of Chemistry, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois 60208, USA
³Materials Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois 60439, USA
⁴Department of Applied Physics and Applied Mathematics, Columbia University, New York, New York 10027, USA

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Vol. 89, Iss. 1 — 1 January 2014

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