First-principles analysis of the Raman spectrum of vitreous silica: comparison with the vibrational density of states

The HH and HV Raman spectra of vitreous silica are calculated from first principles for a model structure consisting of a disordered network of corner-sharing tetrahedra, for which the vibrational properties were obtained previously. We analyse the contribution of specific atomic motions to the Raman spectra and perform a detailed comparison with respect to the vibrational density of states. We find that the HV spectrum closely resembles the vibrational density of states. By comparison, the HH spectrum shows significant differences and arises almost exclusively from oxygen vibrations.