Comment on the "Origin of the opalescence at the α--βtransition of quartz: role of the incommensurate phase studied by synchrotron radiation"

Abstract

The interpretation of the origin of the light scattering anomalies near the transition from incommensurate (IC) to the alpha-phase of quartz by Dolino et al. (Phys. Rev. Lett. 94, 155701 (2005)) is commented. It is shown that the observed IC structure is a pure transverse acoustic (TA) modulation without any soft optic mode component. Such a modulation cannot be responsible for the observed light scattering contrary to the interpretation by Dolino et al.