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Solid State Physics Waves in A Cubic Crystal HW For Next Tuesday: Chapter 3 10,13 Chapter 4 1,3,5

The document discusses waves in cubic crystals, describing how to calculate the Young's modulus and Poisson's ratio. It also covers shear waves, longitudinal waves, and transverse waves, finding the wave speeds in terms of the elastic constants. The document then discusses modeling crystal vibrations using a discrete mass-spring model and how this relates to the elastic constants.

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Simon Savitt
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58 views26 pages

Solid State Physics Waves in A Cubic Crystal HW For Next Tuesday: Chapter 3 10,13 Chapter 4 1,3,5

The document discusses waves in cubic crystals, describing how to calculate the Young's modulus and Poisson's ratio. It also covers shear waves, longitudinal waves, and transverse waves, finding the wave speeds in terms of the elastic constants. The document then discusses modeling crystal vibrations using a discrete mass-spring model and how this relates to the elastic constants.

Uploaded by

Simon Savitt
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Solid State Physics

Lecture 7

Waves in a cubic crystal


HW for next Tuesday: Chapter 3 10,13; Chapter 4 1,3,5
Stress – Cubic Crystal

Find Young’s modulus (Y = Xx/exx) and Poission’s ratio: ( dw/w)/(dl/l)

Yy and the others are all 0, but eyy is not!

It will help to be able to invert the matrix C (to get the matrix S.)
C44 = 1/S44 C11-C12=(S11-S12)-1 C11+2C12 = (S11 + 2S12)-1

How does dw/w relate to eyy? Can you find eyy in terms of C’s?
Stress – Cubic Crystal

Grab some chalk! We speak of shear as an action that does not change volume,
but distorts a square into a diamond shape.

Note that this is the same kind of deformation as moving the top surface of a cube
to the right (and down slightly, to conserve volume) while holding the bottom
fixed.
v=0, w=0

w C11
w 2 r =C11K 2 Wave speed =v =
K r
v=0, w=0

w C11
w 2 r =C11K 2 Wave speed =v =
K r

A transverse (shear) wave is obtained with v replacing u in the y analog of 57a,


(57b) or replacing x with y in solution to 57a. (In this case, displacement is still in
x, but wave motion is along y.) Only the C44 term contributes.
w C
Wave speed, shear wave =v = 44
K r
w C
Wave speed, longitudinal wave =v = 11
K r

“Effective elastic constant” = C11

w C
Wave speed, shear (transverse) wave =v = 44
K r
[011] direction (or [110])

Shear wave traveling any direction in the YZ plane.

u =u0 exp[i(K y y + K z z - w t)]

w 2 r =C44 (K y2 + K z2 ) =C44 K 2

The elastic constant for a shear wave in the yz plane, with displacement along x, is C 44
For a shear wave in the xy plane, with displacement along z – same.
[011] direction (or [110])

Most complicated case we will discuss:

Propagation in a plane, with motion in the same plane.


Following Kittel, we study xy plane.
Conclusions: diamonds are hard and salt is soft.
Atomic Description of Wave Motion in Crystals
Atomic Description of Wave Motion in Crystals

The continuum approximation does not work for short wavelengths.


Atomic Description of Wave Motion in Crystals
Lecture 8
Continuum mechanics - revisited

To better understand the continuum description of waves, let’s try to solve


this problem:

Take a crystal for which C12 ≠ C13, but otherwise has all the same matrix
elements as for a cubic crystal. How do you modify the equations for u and v?
Continuum mechanics - revisited

Take a crystal for which C12 ≠ C13, but otherwise has all the same matrix
elements as for a cubic crystal. How do you modify the equations for u and v?

Let’s take C44=C11/5=C12=C13/3 = C


Consider a wave traveling in the [110] direction (45° to xy in the xy plane),
With a displacement also in the xy plane.
Substitute into your equations for u, v
Find the eigenvalues for w, and the eigenvectors.
Are these waves purely longitudinal or transverse?
Continuum mechanics - revisited

Take a crystal for which C12 ≠ C13, but otherwise has all the same matrix
elements as for a cubic crystal. How do you modify the equations for u and v?

You should have found that the normal modes are NOT transverse or longitudinal.
(In fact, they are not even perpendicular to each other!)

Suppose we launch a pure transverse wave in the [110] direction. What happens?
Last Time: Discrete atoms
Difference equation (instead of differential equation)
Assume a sinusoidal solution

M = mass of plane of atoms.


a = separation of planes
C = force of one plane on adjacent plane when separation changed a unit amount
M = mass of plane of atoms.
a = separation of planes
C = force of one plane on adjacent plane when separation changed a unit amount

How do these parameters relate to C11 or C44?

C11 is force per unit area (stress)


w C11 Ca 2
=v = =
K r M

The mass of a plane of atoms is M =r xya


So C =C11 xy / a
We can easily extend this model to include non-nearest plane interactions.
Two atoms per primitive basis
Interesting points:

1. there is a frequency gap… certain frequencies of phonons are not


allowed
2. Even at K=0, the frequency of the “optical branch” is not zero.
Two atoms per primitive basis

For long wavelengths (K ~ 0), the optical mode has no center of mass displacement.
Alternate atoms move in opposite direction, keeping center of mass fixed.

If alternate atoms have (even partially) different charges, you can excite the optical
phonon with an electromagnetic wave of the right frequency.
A phonon is the quantum of vibration… in other words, it is the minimum energy
that must be absorbed to cause a vibration.

We can estimate the displacement associated with a single phonon by calculating


the energy in an elastic wave.

Of course, the energy will depend on how big a volume the wave fills.
(There is no such thing as a smallest atomic displacement. But it is true that energy
given to vibrations must be in multiples of )
We can measure phonon dispersion (in other words, w vs K) for phonons by
INELASTIC SCATTERING (for example, of neutrons.)

We need to measure how much energy the neutron loses, and how it’s wavevector
changes.

K is the phonon wavevector, k, k’ are neutron wavevectors.


We chose G to make sure that K is in the 1st Brillouin Zone.

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