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Energy may be carried through a material as a vibration, and a phonon is essentially the smallest vibration there can be; the energy of a phonon is related to the frequency. Vibrations in a molecular lattice correspond directly to the temperature, and energetic processes emitting phonons as well as photons will tend to heat the glass. Depending on the nature of the energetic processes, materials and light can interact via phonons and photons, to emit or absorb light and changing the temperature of the material.

Related Terms: Absorption, Brillouin Scattering, Raman Scattering, Rayleigh Scattering