Soft Phonons in (delta)-Phase Plutonium Near the (delta)-(alpha)' Transition

Journal Article · Thu Sep 13 00:00:00 EDT 2007 · Europhysics Letters (EPL), vol. 82, N/A, April 1, 2008, pp. 26001

OSTI ID:943845

Xu, R; Wong, J; Zshack, P; Hong, H; Chiang, T

Plutonium and its alloys exhibit complex phase diagrams that imply anomalous lattice dynamics near phase stability boundaries. Specifically, the TA [111] phonon branch in Ga-stabilized {delta}-Pu at room temperature shows a pronounced soft mode at the zone boundary, which suggests a possible connection to the martensitic transformation from the fcc {delta}-phase to the monoclinic {alpha}{prime}-phase at low temperatures. This work is a study of the lattice dynamics of this system by x-ray thermal diffuse scattering. The results reveal little temperature dependence of the phonon frequencies, thus indicating that kinetic phonon softening is not responsible for this phase transition.

• Research Organization: Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-48
• OSTI ID: 943845
• Report Number(s): UCRL-JRNL-234943; TRN: US200902%%450
• Journal Information: Europhysics Letters (EPL), vol. 82, N/A, April 1, 2008, pp. 26001, Vol. 82
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS
SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY
73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS
38 RADIATION CHEMISTRY, RADIOCHEMISTRY, AND NUCLEAR CHEMISTRY
29 ENERGY PLANNING
POLICY AND ECONOMY
ALLOYS
DIFFUSE SCATTERING
KINETICS
PHASE DIAGRAMS
PHASE STABILITY
PHONONS
PLUTONIUM
TEMPERATURE DEPENDENCE
TRANSFORMATIONS