Scaling the Temperature-Dependent Boson Peak of Vitreous Silica with the High-Frequency Bulk Modulus Derived from Brillouin Scattering Data

The position and strength of the boson peak in silica glass vary considerably with temperature T. Such variations cannot be explained solely with changes in the Debye energy. New Brillouin-scattering measurements are presented which allow determining the T dependence of unrelaxed acoustic velocities. Using a velocity based on the bulk modulus, scaling exponents are found which agree with the soft-potential model. The unrelaxed bulk modulus thus appears to be a good measure for the structural evolution of silica with T and to set the energy scale for the soft potentials.