High pressure investigations of structural, electronic, and topological quantum phase transitions in strong spin orbit coupling systems

Abstract

The study of light and its interaction with matter has fascinated the scientific field right from its discovery. In 1864, James Clerk Maxwell established the electromagnetic (EM) theory of light, which couples the electricity and magnetism [1]. Importantly, he proposed that light is an EM wave which travels at the speed of about 3 x 108 m/s. This is considered as the greatest advancement in the field of light. Remarkably, in 1887, the German physicist Heinrich Hertz showed the existence of EM waves experimentally and thus created fascination about light in many other physicists. In 1924, French physicist Louis de Broglie gave the idea of dual nature of light (i.e., wave and particle) and this hypothesis was subsequently proved in many experiments. Light exhibits many interesting properties such as reflection, transmission, absorption, scattering, interference, diffraction, polarization, etc. When light interacts with matter, it can undergo any of these phenomena. In this thesis, we have used the scattering and diffraction-based experiments such as inelastic light scattering (Raman Spectroscopy) and X-ray Diffraction (XRD). Hence, we briefly review the history of scattering and diffraction of light.