Neutron inelastic scattering study of Se-As-Ge glasses: A test of the vibrational isocoordinate rule

Abstract
Determinations of the generalized neutron vibrational density of states (GVDOS) made on samples of Se-As-Ge glass alloys by neutron inelastic scattering at the NIST Center for Neutron Research are presented. It is observed that up to a certain characteristic vibrational energy the GVDOS are nearly identical for alloys over a broad range of compositions as long as they have the same average coordination number r. In the present work this feature, referred to as the vibrational isocoordinate rule (VIR), is established for samples of Se-As-Ge alloys over the entire glass-forming region with r ranging from 2.16 through the theoretical rigidity percolation threshold 2.4 up to 3.2. Compositional exceptions to the VIR have been found along and near the Se-As binary alloy line above r=2.4.