Low-frequency spectroscopy of intermolecular vibrations in disordered condensed media

This review is devoted to an area of spectroscopy that has been intensively developed in recent years, associated with the study of low-frequency IR absorption and Raman spectra in the 10-200-cm(-1) region and caused by intermolecular vibrations in a condensed medium. Modern concepts of the formation mechanisms of these spectra are explained. Experimental methods for obtaining starting data and methods of processing them are considered. The results of studies of a wide range of objects (liquids, solutions, liquid crystals, glasses, etc.) are discussed from the viewpoint of the possibility of obtaining new information on the structure and physicochemical properties of disordered condensed media. (C) 1996 The Optical Society of America.