Brillouin scattering in liquid sulfur dioxide: relaxational behaviour

The frequency dependence of hypersonic absorption and the dispersion of hypersonic speed in liquid sulfur dioxide (SO ) were 2 determined at (293.75"0.30) K and at (284.65"0.30) K by Brillouin spectroscopy. The results are used to experimentally establish the second relaxation step in the double vibrational relaxation of these quantities in the liquid phase, which was first conjectured by R. Bass and J. Lamb, Proc. R. Soc. Ser. A (1958) 243, 94. This second relaxation takes place at approximately 1.5 GHz for both temperatures within experimental error, whereas the first relaxation step, previously determined by ultrasonic spectroscopy, takes place at approximately 23 MHz. In the course of this investigation, some evidence was found that for the temperatures considered the shear viscosity relaxes in the hypersonic frequency range.