Boson peak and hybridization of acoustic modes with vibrations of nanometric heterogeneities in glasses

Abstract

The low-frequency dynamics in glasses is compared with that in icosahedral quasicrystals. For both arrangements of matter, the existence of nanometric heterogeneities, implying the existence of a nanometric inhomogeneous elastic network, is expected to play a crucial role. Thanks to this comparison, mostly based on inelastic x-ray (neutron) scattering data, it is proposed that the excess of vibrational density of states observed in both materials is due to the hybridization of longitudinal and transverse acoustic modes with modes localized around the heterogeneities.