Claire Saunders

• Doctor of Philosophy
• Visiting Scientist at California Institute of Technology

Atomic vibrational dynamics in cuprite Cu2O was studied by inelastic neutron scattering and molecular-dynamics (MD) simulations from 10 K to 900 K. At 300 K, a diffuse inelastic intensity (DII) appeared in the phonon dispersions, and dominated the spectral intensity at higher temperatures. Classical MD simulations with a machine-learning interatomi...

The latent heat, L, is central to melting, but its atomic origin remains elusive. It is proportional to the entropy of fusion, ΔSfus = L/Tm (Tm is the melting temperature), which depends on changes of atom configurations, atom vibrations, and thermal electron excitations. Here, we combine inelastic neutron scattering and machine-learned molecular d...

Atomic vibrational dynamics in cuprite, Cu2O, was studied by inelastic neutron scattering and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations from 10 K to 900 K. Above 300 K, a diffuse inelastic intensity (DII) appeared, obscuring the high-energy phonon modes. Classical MD simulations with a machine learning interatomic potential reproduced general features of...

The anomalously low thermal expansion of Fe–Ni Invar has long been associated with magnetism, but to date, the microscopic underpinnings of the Invar behaviour have eluded both theory and experiment. Here we present nuclear resonant X-ray scattering measurements of the phonon and magnetic entropies under pressure. By applying a thermodynamic Maxwel...

Phonon densities of states (DOSs) of body-centered cubic chromium were measured by time-of-flight inelastic neutron scattering at temperatures up to 1493 K. Density functional theory calculations with both quasiharmonic (QH) and anharmonic (AH) methods were performed at temperatures above the Néel temperature. Features in the phonon DOSs decrease i...

Inelastic neutron scattering measurements were performed with a time-of-flight chopper spectrometer to observe phonons in all parts of the Brillouin zone of a single crystal of cuprite. We reduced the experimental data to phonon dispersions in the high-symmetry directions, and changes between 10 and 300 K are reported. In this paper, we show ab ini...

A quantum Langevin model, like models from optomechanics, was developed for phonons. It predicts intermodulation phonon sidebands (IPSs) in anharmonic crystals. Ab initio calculations of anharmonic phonons in rock-salt NaBr showed these spectral features as many-body effects. Modern inelastic neutron scattering measurements on a crystal of NaBr at...

A quantum Langevin model, similar to models used recently for optomechanics, was used to predict intermodulation phonon sidebands (IPS). Ab initio calculations of anharmonic phonons in rocksalt NaBr showed these spectral features as "many-body effects". Modern inelastic neutron scattering measurements on a crystal of NaBr at 300K revealed diffuse i...

Inelastic neutron scattering on a single crystal of silicon was performed at temperatures from 100 to 1500 K. These experimental data were reduced to obtain phonon spectral intensity at all wave vectors →Q and frequencies ω in the first Brillouin zone. Thermal broadenings of the phonon peaks were obtained by fitting and by calculating with an itera...

The heat capacities of nanocrystalline Ni3Fe and control materials with larger crystallites were measured from 0.4-300 K. The heat capacities were integrated to obtain the enthalpy, entropy, and Gibbs free energy and to quantify how these thermodynamic functions are altered by nanocrystallinity. From the phonon density of states (DOS) measured by i...

All phonons in a single crystal of NaBr were measured by inelastic neutron scattering at temperatures of 10, 300 and 700 K. Even at 300 K the phonons, especially the longitudinal-optical (LO) phonons, showed large shifts in frequencies, and showed large broadenings in energy owing to anharmonicity. Ab initio computations were first performed with t...

All phonons in a single crystal of NaBr were measured by inelastic neutron scattering at temperatures of 10, 300 and 700 K. Even at 300 K the phonons, especially the longitudinal-optical (LO) phonons, showed large shifts in frequencies, and showed large broadenings in energy owing to anharmonicity. Ab initio computations were first performed with t...

Iron phonon partial densities of states of Pd357Fe were measured from room temperature through the Curie transition at 500 K using nuclear resonant inelastic x-ray scattering. The experimental results were compared to ab initio spin-polarized calculations that model the finite-temperature thermodynamic properties of L12-ordered Pd3Fe with stochasti...

Total scattering and pair distribution function (PDF) methods allow for detailed study of local atomic order and disorder, including materials for which Rietveld refinements are not traditionally possible (amorphous materials, liquids, glasses and nanoparticles). With the advent of modern neutron time-of-flight (TOF) instrumentation, total scatteri...