Raman light scattering in sodium nitrite crystals

Abstract

Raman light scattering spectra of a ferroelectric sodium nitrite crystal is studied in the lattice mode region as the temperature is lowered from room temperature to 123 K. The existence of a Raman satellite corresponding to the soft lattice mode, i.e., transverse polar vibration responsible for the ferroelectric phase transition, is established for the first time. It is found that the intensity of the Raman scattering by the pseudo-scalar low-frequency A₂ mode exceeds the intensity of other lattice variations by an order of magnitude.