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

Journal Article · Thu Sep 13 04:00:00 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 Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-48
• OSTI ID: 943845
• Report Number(s): UCRL-JRNL-234943
• Journal Information: Europhysics Letters (EPL), vol. 82, N/A, April 1, 2008, pp. 26001, Journal Name: Europhysics Letters (EPL), vol. 82, N/A, April 1, 2008, pp. 26001 Vol. 82
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

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