The term emphanisis [1] has been coined to define the appearance of local off-centering displacements of ions from a high-symmetry ground state on warming, as recently discovered in PbTe [2]. Such a phenomenon is unusual because, in the canonical view of structural transformations, a low-symmetry ground state evolves into a higher symmetry state on warming. Although it is not uncommon for remnants of a low-symmetry phase to appear as spatial fluctuations at high temperature, the emergence of a locally broken symmetry state from a high symmetry ground state is quite rare. Emphanisis may be behind some long-known, but poorly understood anomalies seen in the lead chalcogenides. However, the origin and nature of emphanisis are still the subject of controversy. Several explanations for emphanisis have been suggested, including a simple response to an underlying anharmonic potential [3], a dynamic ferroelectric-like off-centering [2], and a temperature-dependent competition between ionicity and covalency [1], but an understanding remains elusive. In this talk I will report on atomic pair distribution function (PDF) measurements of the lead-free compound SnTe, which is isostructural to PbTe at high T but with a ferroelectric phase below Tc ~ 100K. Our data show that SnTe also exhibits an emphanitic response, but with an onset temperature well above Tc and a symmetry that is distinct from that of the ferroelectric phase. Taken together these results suggests that the emphanitic and ferroelectric responses are quite distinct.
Local Symmetry Breaking in the High Temperature Regime of SnTe