Resonant Ultrasound Studies of Complex Transition Metal Oxides

Department of Energy EPSCoR The University of Mississippi Award: DE-FG02-04ER46121 Resonant Ultrasound Spectroscopy Studies of Complex Transition Metal Oxides The central thrust of this DOE funded research program has been to apply resonant ultrasound spectroscopy (RUS), an elegant and efficient method for determining the elastic stiffness constants of a crystal, to the complex and poorly understood class of materials known as transition metal oxides (TMOs). Perhaps the most interesting and challenging feature of TMOs is their strongly correlated behavior in which spin, lattice, and charge degrees of freedom are strongly coupled. Elastic constants are a measure of the interatomic potentials in a crystal and are thus sensitive probes into the atomic environment. This sensitivity makes RUS an ideal tool to study the coupling of phase transition order parameters to lattice strains. The most significant result of the project has been the construction of a high temperature RUS apparatus capable of making elastic constant measurements at temperatures as high as 1000 degrees Celsius. We have designed and built novel acoustic transducers which can operate as high as 600 degrees Celsius based on lithium niobate piezoelectric elements. For measurement between 600 to 1000 C, a buffer rod system is used in which the samples under test and transducers are separated by a rod with low acoustic attenuation. The high temperature RUS system has been used to study the charge order (CO) transition in transition metal oxides for which we have discovered a new transition occurring about 35 C below the CO transition. While the CO transition exhibits a linear coupling between the strain and order parameter, this new precursor transition shows a different coupling indicating a fundamentally different mechanism. We have also begun a study, in collaboration with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, to study novel thermoelectric materials at elevated temperatures. These materials include silicon germanium with various doping and Zintl phase materials. Such materials show promise for increased figures of merit, vital to making thermolectrics competitive with traditional power generation mechanisms