Raman study of coupled electronic and phononic excitations in LuB12

Abstract

Electronic Raman scattering and optical phonon self-energies are studied on single crystals of LuB12with different isotopic composition in the temperature region 10–650 K and at pressures up to 10 GPa. The shape and energy position of the spectral peaks depend on the magnitude of the probed wave vector, temperature, and symmetry of excitations. We simulated experimental spectra using electronic structure obtained in the density functional theory and taking into account the electron-phonon scattering. The emergence of a broad continuum in the spectra is identified with the inelastic scattering of light from the electronic intraband excitations. Their coupling to non-fully symmetric phonon modes is the source of both the Fano interference and temperature-dependent phonon self-energies. In addition, long wavelength vibrations of the boron atoms are in nonadiabatic regime, so the electronic contribution to their self-energies provides a temperature dependence that is similar to the anharmonic contribution. Comparison of calculation and experiment allowed us to determine the coupling constant λ = 0.32, which gives correct critical temperature of the transition to the superconducting state. © 2017 Elsevier B.V.