Nanostructures in glasses probed by low-frequency Raman scattering

The interest of low-frequency Raman scattering for the study of materials at the nanometric scale is demonstrated. The linear dependence between the Raman shift and the inverse of the diameter of the nanostructures makes it a good tool to follow the kinetic of growth of crystalline inhomogeneities in semi-conductor quantum dots or in precursors of glass ceramics. In glasses it appears as one of the few ways to investigate medium-range order and suggests a non-continuous structure. Extension towards the study of phase transformations in semi-conductor nanostructures or the evolution of the medium range order structure of glass with fictive temperature is in progress.