Inelastic neutron scattering measurements on the hexagonal Zn67Mg33S semiconductor alloy reveal a bimodal pattern of the optical modes across the Brillouin zone, confirmed by first-principles simulations. Such modes are sensitive to the local fluctuations in the composition inherent to random Zn/Mg alloying, distinguishing homo from hetero environments of a given bond (1-bond/2-mode), as is formalized for cubic alloys by the percolation model. The latter model thus emerges as a generic framework for systematizing the optical modes of semiconductor alloys in various crystal structures.
@article{arxiv.2503.03381,
title = {Lattice dynamics of hexagonal ZnMgS},
author = {Abdelmahjid Elmahjoubi and Mala Rao and Alexandre Ivanov and Andrei Postnikov and Alain Polian and Toni Alhaddad and Samrath Chaplot and Andrea Piovano and Sebastien Diliberto and Stephanie Michel and Alain Maillard and Karol Strzalkowski and O. Pages},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2503.03381},
year = {2025}
}