Vibrational properties of iron-chalcogenide superconductor K$_{0.75}$Fe$_{1.75}$Se$_{2}$ with $T_{c}sim$ 30 K have been measured by Raman and optical spectroscopies over temperature range of 3-300 K. Sample undergoes textit{I4/m} $to $ textit{I4} str
uctural phase transition accompanied by loss of inversion symmetry at $T_{1}$, below 250 K, observed as appearance of new fully-symmetric Raman mode at $sim$ 165 cm$^{-1}$. Small vibration mode anomalies are also observed at $T_{2}sim$ 160 K. From first-principles vibrational analysis of antiferromagnetic K$_{0.8}$Fe$_{1.6}$Se$_{2}$ utilizing pseudopotentials all observed Raman and infrared modes have been assigned and the displacement patterns of the new Raman mode identified as involving predominantly the Se atoms.
Results of Fe K-, As K-, and La L3-edge x-ray absorption near edge structure (XANES) measurements on LaO1-xFxFeAs compounds are presented. The Fe K- edge exhibits a chemical shift to lower energy, near edge feature modifications, and pre-edge feature
suppression as a result of F substitution for O. The former two changes provide evidence of electron charge transfer to the Fe sites and the latter directly supports the delivery of this charge into the Fe-3d orbitals. The As K- edge measurements show spectral structures typical of compounds with planes of transition-metal tetrahedrally coordinated to p-block elements as is illustrated by comparison to other such materials. The insensitivity of the As-K edge to doping, along with the strong Fe-K doping response, is consistent with band structure calculations showing essentially pure Fe-d character near the Fermi energy in these materials. The energy of the continuum resonance feature above the La-L3 edge is shown to be quantitatively consistent with the reported La-O inter-atomic separation and with other oxide compounds containing rare earth elements.
