Ordinary electromagnetic waves in absorptive crystals

It is shown that “switching-on” of absorption in a continuum of the directions of propagation of ordinary electromagnetic waves in transparent triclinic crystals results in the “survival” of only a discrete number of these directions. The relationships for the angular coordinates of these directions are obtained in terms of the components of a complex permittivity tensor.     

Low-frequency spectra of dislocation paths in NaCl crystals in the electron spin resonance scheme

It is shown that the criterion of dislocation mobility resonance in NaCl crystals in the electron spin resonance scheme in the Earth’s magnetic field depends on both the sample orientation in this field and the location of impurity atoms in the dislocation core. The measured low-frequency spectrum of dislocation paths makes it possible to resolve a series of peaks corresponding to different positions of a Ca impurity that correlate with the results from computer simulations of the dislocation core structure.     

1D electro-elastic fields in piezoelectrics excited by intrinsic strains

The electro-elastic fields induced by the transversely 1D distribution of intrinsic strains in an arbitrary infinite piezoelectric plate with metallized surfaces are determined. The results obtained generalize the well-known theory of internal stresses in anisotropic purely elastic plates developed by Indenbom, Sil’vestrova, and Sirotin [1]. The coupled fields found in the piezoelectric are expressed in terms of the 4D formalism and the corresponding generalized planar tensor of electro-elastic moduli. It is shown that the limiting transitions from a piezoelectric plate to an unbounded medium and half-space lead to identical formulas.     

The phase shift for reflection of elastic waves in hexagonal piezoelectric crystals

The reflection of a transverse wave from the surface of a piezoelectric crystal of class 6 is considered for the case when the reflection plane coincides with or is close to the plane of transverse isotropy. The dependence of the phase shift of the reflected wave on crystal piezomoduli and other parameters is investigated. Reflection angles corresponding to maximum sensitivity of the phase shift φ to a change in piezomoduli are found. The influence of the piezoeffect on the reflection phase shift turns out to be most pronounced at grazing incidence along the transverse isotropic direction. Then the switching on of the (arbitrarily small) piezoeffect changes the phase from 0 to π, which gives annihilation between incident and reflected bulk waves.     

Quartet of resonance peaks of dislocation displacements in NaCl crystals during their magnetic processing in the low-frequency EPR scheme

Resonance relaxation displacements of dislocations have been studied in NaCl crystals placed in crossed ultralow magnetic fields have been studied in the electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) scheme, i.e., in the static magnetic field B = (26–261) μT and the perpendicular radio-frequency field (with the amplitudes of 2.5 and 6 μT in the frequency range ν = (0.5–7.3) MHz). The spectrum (quartet) of equidistant resonance peaks of the dislocation mean paths l(ν) has been observed. In the most part of the studied field interval B, the frequencies of the EPR peaks correspond to the Zeeman splitting of the levels with four g-factors close to 2 and the difference of the neighboring values Δg = 0.09. The equidistance is violated only at the lowest fields, B < 50 μT, and frequencies ν < 0.7 MHz.     

Resonant dislocation motion in NaCl crystals in the EPR scheme in the Earth’s magnetic field with pulsed pumping

Resonant dislocation motions in NaCl(Ca) crystals under the simultaneous action of the Earth’s magnetic field B _Earth (～66 μT) and a pulsed pump field $\tilde B$ of sufficient amplitude $\tilde B_m $ and certain duration τ have been detected and studied. The measured dislocation path peaks l(τ) have a maximum at τ = τ _r ≈ 0.53 μs. The resonance criterion has been found to be the ordinary EPR condition in which the g-factor is close to 2 and the optimum inverse pulse duration τ _r ^?1 is used instead of the harmonic pump field frequency ν _r . The largest peak l(τ) height is reached at mutually orthogonal dislocation (L) and magnetic field (B _Earth and $\tilde B$ ) orientations. Pulsed field rotation to the position $\tilde B$ ‖ B _Earth significantly decreases but does not “kill” the effect. For dislocations parallel to the Earth’s field (L ‖ B _Earth), the resonance almost disappears even at $\tilde B$ ⊥ B _Earth. In the optimum geometry of experiments, as the pump field amplitude $\tilde B_m $ decreases from 17.6 to 10 μT, the path peak height l _r = l(τ _r ) decreases only by 7.5%, remaining at the level of l _r ～ 10² μm, and at a $\tilde B_m $ further fall-off to 4 μT, it rapidly decreases to background values. In this case, the relative density of mobile dislocations similarly decreases from ～90 to 40%. Possible physical mechanisms of the observed effect have been discussed.     

Cones of optical axes in gyrotropic crystals with scalar permittivity

A theory is constructed for the degeneracy of electromagnetic waves in gyrotropic crystals near their isotropy points (in temperature and other parameters), in which permittivity ? becomes scalar due to dispersion and optical anisotropy is entirely determined by gyrotropy. It is shown that closed lines of intersection of sheets of the refraction surface, which correspond to the cones and, in particular, planes of the optical axes, are formed for isotropic ?. The polarization characteristics of wave fields experience a jump upon a transition through such lines. The conditions for the existence and geometry of the degeneracy cones under investigation are analyzed for crystals of all symmetry classes permitting optical activity. It is shown that the degeneracy lines disappear for a small deviation of ? from isotropy, while polarization anomalies persist. Isolated (one or two) degeneracy points may retain in place of the lines in the case when the optical axes of a perturbed crystal with “switched-off” gyrotropy belong to the initial cone.     

Paradoxes of the influence of small Ni impurity additions in a NaCl crystal on the kinetics of its magnetoplasticity

A comparative study of magnetoplasticity in two types of NaCl crystals differing in impurity content only by a small Ni addition (0.06 ppm) in one of them, NaCl(Ni), has been carried out. Two methods of sample magnetic exposure were used: in a constant field B = 0–0.6 T and in crossed fields in the EPR scheme—the Earth’s field B_Earth (50 μT) and a variable pumping field \(\tilde B( \sim 1 \mu T)\) at frequencies ν ~ 1 MHz. In the experiments in the EPR scheme, the change of the field orientation from \(\tilde B \bot B_{Earth}\) to \(\left. {\tilde B} \right\|B_{Earth}\) led to almost complete suppression of the effect in the NaCl(Ni) crystals and reduced only slightly (approximately by 20%) the height of the resonance peak of dislocation mean paths in the crystals without Ni, with the amplitude of the mean paths in NaCl(Ni) in the orientation \(\tilde B \bot B_{Earth}\) having been appreciably lower than that in NaCl. In contrast, upon exposure to a constant magnetic field, a more intense effect was observed in the crystal with Ni. The threshold pumping field amplitude \(\tilde B\), below which the effect is absent under resonance conditions, for the NaCl(Ni) crystals turned out to be a factor of 5 smaller than that for NaCl, while the thresholds of a constant magnetic field coincide for both types of crystals. All these differences are discussed in detail and interpreted.     

Threshold Effects of the Magnetic Influence on the Microhardness of KDP Crystals

JETP Letters - The threshold of the magnetic effect on the microhardness of potassium dihydrogen phosphate (KDP) crystals has been found. It was previously shown that the preliminary exposure of...     

Relaxation Kinetics of the Microhardness of KDP Crystals after Their Exposure to a Magnetic Field

It has been shown that potassium dihydrogen phosphate crystals change their microhardness reversibly after their exposure to a magnetic field of B = 0.8 or 1.2 T for t_m = 7–90 min. It has been found that the magnetic effect can be conveniently characterized by the quantity B²t_m, because the variation of the parameters conserving B²t_m=const does not change the result. At B²t_m < 10 T² min, the effect is almost absent. Above this threshold, the amplitude of changes in the microhardness increases and approaches a constant value of ~10% at B²t_m ≈ 19 T² min. The responses of samples of the same crystal from the faces of the prismatic and pyramidal growth sectors to exposure are different. In the former case, they soften; in the latter case, the hardening stage follows the softening stage. However, in both cases, the microhardness returns to the initial value. At B²t_m values from 19 to 37 T² min, the amplitudes and durations of the effect do not change, but in the narrow range of 37–43 T² min, the lifetime of the modified state increases sharply with transition to a new level: “sharp” peaks with a half-width of ~2 days are transformed to trapezoids with the width of the horizontal side of ~1–2 weeks. A physical scheme of the observed effects has been proposed.