Light scattering study of low-energy vibrational excitations in the metallic glass Ni₆₇Zr₃₃ using electronic Raman scattering

The Raman response of the metallic glass Ni$_{67}$Zr$_{33}$ is measured as a function of polarization and temperature and analyzed theoretically. Unexpectedly, the intensity in the range up to 300\wn increases upon cooling, which is counterintuitive when the response originates from vibrations alone as in insulators. The increase finds a natural explanation if the conduction electrons are assumed to scatter on localized vibrations with a scattering probability proportional to the Debye-Waller factor. None of our assumptions is material specific, and the results are expected to be relevant for disordered systems in general.