ELASTIC INTERACTION BETWEEN NANOCRYSTALS AND A CRYSTALLINE MATRIX - CUCL IN NACL

It is demonstrated that doping of NaCl with CuCl increases the elastic constants of NaCl and modifies their dependence on temperature. The c hanges are significantly larger than estimated for a statistical distr ibution of the doping material. The crystallinity of embedded CuCl is considered to be responsible for additional elastic effects. This conc lusion is verified by studying different kinds of annealing effects. T he elastic interaction between guest and host crystals is interpreted as a relaxation of the NaCl lattice which closes the spatial gap cause d by the lattice misfit. This results in a spontaneous strain which mo difies the elastic constants due to the contribution of nonlinear term s.