Inelastic X-Ray Scattering Studies of Phonon Dispersion in PbTe and (Pb,Cd)Te Solid Solution

PbTe and its solid solution (Pb,Cd)Te containing 2% of CdTe and PbTe grown by self-selecting vapour growth technique were investigated by inelastic X-ray scattering using synchrotron radiation. The ID28 beamline at ESRF with the incident photon energy of 17794 eV and the energy resolution of 3 meV was applied for that purpose. The measurements were performed at room temperature along [001]-type high symmetry direction in the Brillouin zone. In spite of a very low energy of phonon branches they can be determined by inelastic X-ray scattering with a high accuracy. The transversal acoustic phonon dispersion obtained by inelastic X-ray scattering corresponds well to those resulting from inelastic neutron scattering measurements and ab initio calculations. Apart from expected structures corresponding to the bulk phonons an additional scattering related to the crystal surface properties was observed in the inelastic X-ray scattering spectra. The analysis performed with the use of secondary ion mass spectroscopy technique demonstrated a presence of a thin oxide layer at sample surfaces.