“…The much weaker structure at ∼713 cm −1 corresponds to the Si stretching mode, a mode with dominating Si displacement 29, sometimes called ‘bending’ mode in the literature. Beyond 1 nm, these peak positions do not shift with film thickness anymore and, accordingly, the IR dielectric function of the evaporated film already resembles that of bulk SiO 12, 14, 30. Thus, in the following discussion, these SiO peak positions will be referred to as bulk frequencies, since, in the limit of long waves, the frequencies of optical vibrations with polarization parallel to the film approach transverse optical (TO) bulk frequencies.…”