Impurity Locations and Mechanisms of Charge Compensation in Stoichiometric Lithium Niobate and Lithium Tantalate Crystals

这一提议是关于技术上重要的一类材料，铌酸锂（LN）和钽酸锂（LT），在电光学领域具有巨大潜力。这些材料对电光工业的重要性，就像纯硅对电子工业的重要性一样。该项目将集中研究这些材料的纯和掺杂版本的单晶缺陷结构，以及通过电子顺磁共振（EPR）和电子核双共振（ENDOR）研究的内在和外在缺陷的相互影响。系统研究将在蒙大拿州立大学用新购买的布鲁克EPR光谱仪进行。样品将从世界各地的水晶种植者那里获得，并通过与当地公司的合作，科学材料，波兹曼，MT.研究生和本科生的参与，包括女性和代表性不足的群体的成员将优先考虑。该提案涉及一类在电光学领域具有巨大应用潜力的材料，即用电场操纵光。在此背景下，两种相关材料，铌酸锂和钽酸锂将以其晶体形式进行研究。要解决的问题包括这些晶体可以达到的完美程度，如果它们不完美，其中缺陷的性质是什么？这些问题将用共振技术来回答，在这种技术中，材料中的电子将在磁场中被激发。一家与研究人员所在大学关系密切的公司将参与生产这项研究所需的晶体。首席研究员将强调妇女和少数民族在项目中的参与。

This proposal is on a technologically important class of materials, Lithium Niobate(LN) and Lithium Tantalate (LT), of great potential in electro-optics. These materials are of analogous significance to the electro-optics industry as pure Silicon is to the electronics industry. The project will concentrate on studies of defect structures in single crystals of pure and doped versions of these materials as well as on the mutual influence of intrinsic and extrinsic defects studied through Electron Paramagnetic Resonance (EPR) and Electron Nuclear Double Resonance (ENDOR). Systematic studies will be carried out at Montana State University in a newly purchased Bruker EPR spectrometer. The samples will be obtained from crystal growers worldwide and through a partnership with local company, Scientific Materials, Bozeman, MT. Participation of graduate and undergraduate students including women and members of underrepresented groups will be given priority.This proposal deals with a class of materials that have great potential for applications in electro-optics i.e. the manipulation of light with an electric field. Two materials of relevance in this context, Lithium Niobate and Lithium Tantalate will be studied in their crystalline form. Questions to be addressed include the degree of perfection that these crystals can reach and if they are not perfect what is the nature of the defects in them? These questions will be answered using a resonance technique where the electrons in the material will be excited in a magnetic field. A company close to the investigators' university will be involved in producing the requisite crystals for the study. The principal investigator will emphasize the participation of women and minorities in the project.