Transverse acoustic excitations in liquid Ga

The transverse acoustic excitation modes were detected by inelastic x-ray scattering in liquid Ga in the Q range above 9nm-1 although liquid Ga is mostly described by a hard-sphere liquid. An ab initio molecular dynamics simulation clearly supports this finding. From the detailed analysis for the S(Q,ω) spectra with a good statistic quality, the lifetime of 0.5 ps and the propagating length of 0.4-0.5 nm can be estimated for the transverse acoustic phonon modes, which may correspond to the lifetime and size of cages formed instantaneously in liquid Ga.