Resonant Ultrasound Spectroscopy for Irregularly Shaped Samples and Its Application to Uranium Ditelluride

Resonant ultrasound spectroscopy (RUS) is a powerful technique for measuring the full elastic tensor of a given material in a single experiment. Previously, this technique was practically limited to regularly shaped samples such as rectangular parallelepipeds, spheres, and cylinders [W. M. Visscher et al. J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 90, 2154 (1991)]. We demonstrate a new method for determining the elastic moduli of irregularly shaped samples, extending the applicability of RUS to a much larger set of materials. We apply this new approach to the recently discovered unconventional superconductor ${\mathrm{UTe}}_2$ and provide its elastic tensor at both 300 and 4 kelvin.

Figure 1

CT scan models. 3D models of the irregularly shaped samples used for RUS measurements based on CT scans. From left to right: ${\mathrm{SrTiO}}_3$ sample B, ${\mathrm{Mn}}_3\mathrm{Ge}$ sample B, ${\mathrm{UTe}}_2$ sample A, ${\mathrm{UTe}}_2$ sample B.