Much progress has been made over a long period, spanning more than a century, in understanding the atomic arrangement on various length scales of non-crystalline chalcogens and their transitions upon certain external stimuli. However, it is broadly admitted that there are still several unsettled issues that call for proper rationalization. The current review presents an assessment of Raman scattering studies of non-crystalline phases of elemental chalcogens and their mixtures. First, a few remarks on the analysis of Raman data, related to polarization details and spectra reduction are presented. The effect of temperature, pressure and irradiation on the structure of chalcogens is reviewed in detail. As only selenium can form a stable glass at ambient conditions, the interest on sulfur and tellurium has been placed in the melt and the amorphous phase, respectively, whereas reference is also made to the sporadic structural studies of glassy sulfur at low temperatures. It is shown how Raman scattering can be exploited to explore unique phenomena emerging in the liquid state of sulfur, offering valuable information on the details of λ−transition including various thermodynamic-related properties. The subtle nature of this transition in selenium is also discussed. Tellurium is not only impossible to be prepared in the bulk glassy state, but also forms a very liable to crystallization amorphous film. Therefore, the emphasis is placed on light-induced nanostructuring and effects related to photo-amorphization and photo-oxidation. 2
IntroductionNon-crystalline chalcogenides, either as bulk glasses or amorphous films, have attracted extensive interest since their discovery, not only from the viewpoint of fundamental science but in addition owing to the technological potential that these materials exhibit over diverse sectors of active and passive applications [1,2]. Structure on the atomic scale is the decisive factor that determines macroscopic properties and ultimately function of the material. In addition, photoinduced effects, a hallmark of non-crystalline chalcogenides, depend on composition since structural arrangement must be suitable to allow photoinduced transformations on various length scales [3,4]. Understanding structure will not only allow identifying why a material behaves macroscopically in a certain manner, but will make feasible to establish structure-property relations. The latter are central to progress from serendipitous discoveries of functional materials to a rational design of materials with tailored properties. Disorder abolishes all the amenities accompanying the crystal periodicity, which render the role of structure-property relationships indispensable to disordered media.Resolving structure in the amorphous state is per se a formidable task. This is true even for simple systems, e.g. monoatomic chalcogens, let alone for multicomponent materials. Research for applications in non-crystalline chalcogenides has since the beginning of their discovery moved to studies of multicomponent systems, i.e....