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Friday, November 06

Experiments on the Localization of
Vibrational Energy in Nonlinear Lattices

A. J. Sievers, Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y.
Neutron Scattering Science Division Seminar
11:00 AM, SNS Central Laboratory and Office Building (8600), Iran Thomas Auditorium (Room A-103)
Contact: Doug Abernathy (abernathydl@ornl.gov), 865.576.5105

Abstract

It had been known for some time that nonlinearity and discreteness play important roles in many branches of condensed matter physics as evidenced by the appearance of domain walls, kinks and solitons. A more recent discovery is that localized dynamical energy in a perfect nonlinear lattice can be stabilized by lattice discreteness. Experiments probing these excitations continue to produce surprises. Our recent studies demonstrate both the production and manipulation of localized energy along micromechanical arrays, the E&M generation of countable intrinsic localized modes in a 1-D atomic spin lattice and finally, via inelastic neutron scattering, the thermal generation of localized vibrational modes in a NaI crystal.