Collective dynamics of liquid Te: The most non-simple liquid metal

Dynamic structure factor, S(Q,ω), of liquid Te at 470 °C was measured by inelastic X-ray scattering. In the low Q region, inelastic excitations were found, which are dominated by propagating modes. Results from a damped harmonic oscillator analysis showed that the energies of the inelastic excitations positively deviate from the hydrodynamic value by about 50%, which is much larger than those in simple liquid metals and several non-simple liquid metals, but similar to those in a van der Waals liquid Ar and in the other liquid chalcogens. The width of the quasielastic line does not show the so-called de Gennes narrowing, which may reflect the strong covalent nature of the nearest-neighbor correlation.