Temperature dependent elastic and ultrasonic properties of ytterbium monopnictides

Abstract

Ultrasonic properties of ytterbium monopnictides (YbX: X= As, P) have been evaluated along <100>, <110> and <111> directions in the temperature range 100-400 K. The second-and third-order elastic constants (SOECs and TOECs) are calculated for the computation of ultrasonic parameters. Other elastic constants like bulk modulus, shear modulus, Young’s modulus, Poisson ratio, anisotropic ratio, tetragonal moduli and fracture/toughness ratio are also calculated to evaluate the performance of materials under investigation. The elastic behaviour of these materials shows their brittle nature. It is found that the ultrasonic attenuation in ytterbium monopnictides increases with temperature and have quadratic function of temperature. The nature of ultrasonic attenuation was found to be quite similar to the other observed results of rare-earth monopnictides.