The anharmonic lattice dynamics of rock-salt thermoelectric compounds SnTe and PbTe are investigated with inelastic neutron scattering (INS) and first-principles calculations. The experiments show that, surprisingly, although SnTe is closer to the ferroelectric instability, phonon spectra in PbTe exhibit a more anharmonic character. This behavior is reproduced in first-principles calculations o...

We apply boson expansion methods to an extended Lipkin-Meshkov-Glick model including anharmonicities in analogy with previous microscopic calculations. We study the effects of different approximations present in these calculations, among which the truncation of the hamiltonian and of the space, in connection with the study of the properties of two-phonon and three-phonon states. By comparing th...

We explore a simple theoretical model to describe the properties of Bose condensed para-excitons in Cu 2 O. Taking into account the exciton-phonon interaction and introducing a coherent phonon part of the moving condensate, we derive the dynamic equations for the exciton-phonon condensate. Within the Bose approximation for excitons, we discuss the conditions for the moving inhomogeneous con-den...

We investigate the generation of acoustic phonons from electrostriction of optical waves in small core waveguides. We specifically consider simple step-index strip waveguides composed of silica or silicon in air, with sub-micron lateral dimensions. Such waveguides support one or a few optical modes, but a rich spectrum of acoustic phonons that becomes densely populated as the phonon frequency i...

The lattice dynamics of C60 has been studied first by means of group theory and then by diagonalizing the dynamical matrix for two recently proposed intermolecular potentials. The libron and phonon energies are calculated as a function of momentum along various symmetry directions with and without phonon–libron interactions. The effects of these interactions on the density of states are also di...

Magnetic relaxation processes were first discussed for a crystal of paramagnetic transition ions. It was suggested that mechanical vibrations of the crystal lattice (phonons) modulate the crystal electric field of the magnetic ion, thus inducing a 'direct' relaxation between two different spin states. Direct relaxation has also been predicted for single-molecule magnets with a large spin and a ...

We develop a low-temperature theory of quasi-elastic secondary emission from a semiconductor quantum dot, the electronic subsystem of which is resonant with the confined longitudinal-optical (LO) phonon modes. Our theory employs a generalized model for renormalization of the quantum dot's energy spectrum, which is induced by the polar electron-phonon interaction. The model takes into account th...

Superconductivity of n-doped SrTiO3, which remained enigmatic for half a century, is treated as a particular case of nonadiabatic phonon pairing. Motivated by experiment, we suggest the existence of the mobility edge at some dopant concentration. The itinerant part of the spectrum consists of three conduction bands filling by electrons successively. Each subband contributes to the superconducti...