Magnetic Resonance Of Phase Transitions

Magnetic Resonance of Phase Transitions shows how the effects of phase transitions are manifested in the magnetic resonance data. The book discusses the basic concepts of structural phase and magnetic resonance; various types of magnetic resonances and their underlying principles; and the radiofrequency methods of nuclear magnetic resonance. The text also describes quadrupole methods; the microwave technique of electron spin resonance; and the Mössbauer effect. Phase transitions in various systems such as fluids, liquid crystals, and crystals, including paramagnets and ferroelectrics, are also considered. Physicists and scientists working in energetic materials laboratories will find the book invaluable.

Intended for readers with some prior knowledge of condensed-matter physics, this text emphasises the basic physics behind spontaneous structural changes in crystals. Starting with the relevant thermodynamic principles, the author discusses the nature of order variables and their collective motion in a crystal lattice. He also goes on to describe experimental methods for modulated crystal structures and gives examples of structural changes in representative systems. Both a graduate text and reference work.

Structural Phase Transitions II, like its predecessor (Topics in Current Physics, Vol. 23), presents selected methods and recent advances in the experimental investigation of phase transitions in solids. The two chapters in this volume deal with electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR), and with nuclear magnetic and nuclear quadrupole resonance (NMR-NQR). Both techniques are particularly sensitive to local properties. The chapter on EPR concentrates largely on the investigation of static properties, including mean-field behaviour, critical and multicritical phenomena, whilst NMR is shown to be a powerful tool for studying nonlinear dynamics, incommensurate transitions, and disordered systems. This book will serve as an excellent introduction to the methodology and applications of EPR and NMR-NQR for all those wishing to become acquainted with these important tools for studying structural phase transitions.

Research on ferroelectricity and ferroelectric materials started in 1920 with the discovery by Valasek that the variation of spontaneous polarization in Rochelle salt with sign and magnitude of an applied electric field traced a complete and reproducible hysteresis loop. Activity in the field was sporadic until 1935, when Busch and co-workers announced the observation of similar behavior in potassium dihydrogen phosphate and related compounds. Progress thereafter continued at a modest level with the undertaking of some theoretical as well as further experimental studies. In 1944, von Hippel and co-workers discovered ferroelectricity in barium titanate. The technological importance of ceramic barium titanate and other perovskites led to an upsurge of interest, with many new ferroelectrics being identified in the following decade. By 1967, about 2000 papers on various aspects of ferroelectricity had been published. The bulk of this widely dispersed literature was concerned with the experimental measurement of dielectric, crystallographic, thermal, electromechanical, elastic, optical, and magnetic properties. A critical and excellently organized cpmpilation based on these data appeared in 1969 with the publica tion of Landolt-Bornstein, Volume 111/3. This superb tabulation gave instant access to the results in the literature on nearly 450 pure substances and solid solutions of ferroelectric and antiferroelectric materials. Continuing interest in ferroelectrics, spurred by the growing importance of electrooptic crystals, resulted in the publication of almost as many additional papers by the end of 1969 as had been surveyed in Landolt-Bornstein.

A classical metastable state possesses a local free energy minimum at infinite sizes, but not a global one. This concept is phase size independent. We have studied a number of experimental results and proposed a new concept that there exists a wide range of metastable states in polymers on different length scales where their metastability is critically determined by the phase size and dimensionality. Metastable states are also observed in phase transformations that are kinetically impeded on the pathway to thermodynamic equilibrium. This was illustrated in structural and morphological investigations of crystallization and mesophase transitions, liquid-liquid phase separation, vitrification and gel formation, as well as combinations of these transformation processes. The phase behaviours in polymers are thus dominated by interlinks of metastable states on different length scales. This concept successfully explains many experimental observations and provides a new way to connect different aspects of polymer physics. * Written by a leading scholar and industry expert* Presents new and cutting edge material encouraging innovation and future research* Connects hot topics and leading research in one concise volume

Magnetic crystals are ideal systems to study the universal properties of phase transitions, particularly systems with quenched randomness and frustration. Pure systems with different symmetries provide the foundation for studies in corresponding systems with quenched randomness. Because phenomena near phase transitions have universal properties, results from bulk magnetic crystals provide a basis for understanding phase transitions in films and nanoparticles, as well as many non-magnetic materials.This motivates the subject of this book, which discusses phase transitions studies in magnetic crystals from the perspective of an experimentalist who has done extensive work in the field. The advantage is that many experimental techniques are described in sufficient detail for a good understanding of the results and their comparison to theory.