Innovative Acoustic Techniques for Studying New Materials and New Developments in Condensed Matter Physics

摘要

This project involved the use of innovative acoustic techniques to study new materials and new developments in solid state physics. Major accomplishments include a) the preparation and publication of a number of papers, book chapters, and invited lectures, b) the measurement and analysis of an aluminum alloy quasicrystal and its cubic approximant, c) the use of resonant ultrasound to measure acoustic attenuation and determine the effects of heat treatment on ceramics, d) the extension of our technique for measuring even lower (possibly the lowest) infrared optical absorption coefficient, and e) the measurement of the effects of disorder on the propagation of a nonlinear pulse, and f) the observation of statistical effects in measurements of individual bond breaking events in fracture.