The influence of demixing on the dynamics of ionic solids: inelastic neutron scattering from AgxNa1-xCl single crystals

The dynamics of mixed single crystals of AgxNa1-xCl has been investigated by inelastic neutron scattering before and after chemical demixing. In the homogeneous phase, the concentration dependence of acoustic phonons reveals that doping of NaCl with silver chloride leads to a considerable softening of the lattice, while the elastic properties of AgCl are almost independent of sodium chloride additives. After quenching into the miscibility gap, the phase separation is associated with a well-defined splitting of acoustic phonons which provide the most direct information about the underlying mechanism. In contrast to the local dynamical properties, the lattice structure is essentially determined by coherency strains which hinder the relaxation of lattice parameters. Thus diffraction and inelastic scattering yield independent and complementary information about demixing processes in ionic solids