Local order and phonon dynamics in olivine at high temperatures

We aim to study temperature dependent local order phenomena and their influence on the phonon diffuse scattering in the mineral olivine. Olivine forms a solid solution series with two symmetry independent metal cation sites. It was proposed in literature, that the thermal history of the sample significantly influences the cation partitioning. Here, we want to investigate possible local order phenomena alongside the cation partitioning and their influence on the dynamic properties of the material. For this we want to utilize variable temperature single crystal diffuse scattering experiments which provide a unique way of probing local correlations in the distribution of the metal cations, related relaxations of the oxygen ions and their influence on the phonon dynamics in the material.