Effects of pressure on the boson peak of tellurite(TeO2)1−x(ZnO)xglasses: Evidence of an elastic glass-to-glass transition

Abstract

The Raman spectra of three ${\left({\text{TeO}}_2\right)}_{1-x}{\left(\text{ZnO}\right)}_x$ ($x=0.1$, 0.2, and 0.4) glasses have been measured under pressure up to 13 GPa. We report an unusual pressure dependence of the Boson peak frequency which is quite different from that observed in relevant experiments for other network glasses or predicted by theory. The unexpected observed effect indicates that tellurite glasses respond like elastic, rather than plastic, media to both compression and decompression treatments. We suggest that, with respect to plastic versus elastic deformation mode, the behavior of glasses under pressure is not universal. Further, we conclude that a medium range order elastic glass-to-glass transition from a rigid to a more flexible network is induced by pressure for two of the glasses $\left(x=0.2,0.4\right)$. This transition is reversible upon decompression, merely exhibiting a small hysteresis. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.81.174202 © 2010 The American Physical Society