Studies of brillouin and rayleigh scattering in molecular crystals

Measurements of the total intensity, the horizontally and vertically polarized components, and the Brillouin spectrum of light scattered from two molecular crystals, trimethylacetic acid and succinonitrile, have been made over a range of temperature in the plastic phase of these materials up to and a little beyond the melting point. The spectral and intensity changes are correlated with the motions available to the molecules in the crystal.