| Abstract | The infrared (IR) reflectivity of the cubic metal oxides MgO, MnO, and NiO has been measured at room temperature using the technique of oblique incidence. The use of this technique at three angles of incidence provides multiple sets of spectra (including both s- and p-polarizations) to analyze when compared to the standard normal incidence case, which has been used extensively in the past for these compounds. It is shown that the transverse optic (TO) and longitudinal optic (LO) mode phonon parameters can be determined with greater accuracy by using the factorized model for the fits, as compared with the popular classical model used previously, and by fitting the derivative of the reflectivity. Our results for the phonon mode parameters are similar to those found earlier, as could be expected, but are generally more precise. An analysis of the difference in frequency of the TO mode in antiferromagnetic NiO at room temperature for the two polarizations of reflected light revealed a TO mode splitting of about 4 cm⁻¹, with the p-polarized light TO mode having the higher frequency: This small splitting is in agreement with theoretical predictions. This more precise IR method for revealing the phonon mode behavior in such magnetically ordered cubic metal oxides, which are prototypes of strongly correlated electronic systems and have been found to be Mott-Hubbard insulators, may be readily applied to any similar antiferromagnetic system. |
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